Bloody Ruby: A Nuzlocke
by RoboMonkey2012
Summary: Ethan, our rather unlucky hero, has just been encountered with a cash crisis involving the foster care system and his two-year-old cousin Lyra. His girlfriend, who'd been kidnapped by a terrorist group 5 years ago, just showed up and now he's on a pokémon journey to keep his cousin out of the system. Crazed teammates and mystery await on the journey through Hoenn. Good luck, Ethan!
1. Prologue and Rules

_Fire. Fire everywhere. She's screaming. And in the chaos, nobody thought to distinguish her screams from being from the fire or from something else. When they were cut off so suddenly was the same time the roof caved in in a shower of sparks._

_Everyone thought she was dead._

_Except me._

_I saw her._

_I saw that guy in the red hoodie through the flames. He grabbed her. Everyone else says there was no one in a red hoodie in the building, but he was there. I got a really good look at his face. Couldn't forget it if I tried. That'd be a good thing if the cops believed that she wasn't dead._

_I see his face in my nightmares, snatching her away from me and my dream self is just standing there like a stupid psyduck. If I'd had half the balls of a toddler, I'd've run in there, roundhoused the guy, and saved her._

_But no._

_Right in front of me, he clapped his hand over her mouth and dragged her off. She looked right at me, reached for me, and I just stood there._

_After what happened with Aunt Tara and Uncle Nate when I was eleven, I'd sworn to treat my woman better. Like a contract. No, like the Declaration of Independence. And what had I done by just standing there? It was like I'd ripped out my heart, tore up the Declaration of Independence, and fed them both through a shredder multiple times until they were just a mangled, smushy, wet, red heap of pulp oozing blood in the bottom of the bucket. I'd done practically the same thing my douchebag uncle did years ago._

_I'm no better than him._

_Hell, it was even the same situation! A fire in a big building, Aunt Tara trapped and screaming with a buncha other people in there that were all gonna die, and then Nate runs out to protect his precious life and leaves Tara inside. The only difference between me and him is that I actually feel sorry._

_He picked up a new girlfriend on the way home._

_I still lie awake sobbing my guts out two years later._

_Least one good thing came out of one of his girlfriends. A kid. A little girl. His girlfriend stuck around and I think they were actually gonna get married, but she died from childbirth complications. She was the only one of his girlfriends I actually kinda liked. The baby survived, and social services made Nate keep her. Which, knowing my uncle, meant leaving _me_ to take care of Lyra-that's what I named her-and keep her away from his room when he has a woman over._

_For Lyra's sake is why I go on. She's such a sweet kid. Call me a girly boy, but my uncle fails at both being a guardian and being a generally good guy. So I take care of her._

_Uncle Nate's getting ready to kick me and Ly out of the house real soon. I can tell because he's "subtly" slipping help wanted ads from the paper into my calculus textbook._

_My older brother Norman caught wind of that and convinced his wife and kid to let me and Lyra stay with them until I can get my own house. And legal custody of Lyra, but that's in the works. Just have to wait for the contracts to get registered._

_Like hell we'll stick around Uncle Nate and his booze and weed and one-night-stands. I'm sick of finding condom wrappers on the kitchen counter. Sick of smelling cigars. Sick of hearing moans from Nate's room while trying to keep Lyra distracted with a board book. We're going to Hoenn soon as we can._

_Nate'll probably be glad to see us go._

* * *

1. If a pokémon faints, flip a coin to determine whether the pokémon lives or dies. If heads, the pokémon is now dead and to be released. If tails, the pokémon received lifesaving medical treatment at the expense of half the cash Ethan has on his person right then.

2. Only catch one pokémon per area, no repeat catches, and the pokémon first seen is that catch for that route/city.

2b. Gift pokémon and eggs are exempt from the rule.

3. Never refer to a pokémon as "it." Pokémon are living beings, too, and Ethan respects this.

3b. Nickname all pokémon.

4. A full-team wipeout, even if there are still pokémon left in-box, is a game-over. Ethan returns to Littleroot.

* * *

Let the gijinka nuzlocke begin.


	2. Chapter 1

~?~

_"Forget it. You're not getting me to say anything, you bastards! And touch me again, I'll rip your fucking spleen out through your nose!" A girl's voice, maybe early twenties. It's hoarse, like she hadn't had anything to drink for a long time, but still strong._

_"Heh, you've got spirit," said another voice, a huge man in his mid-twenties. "I hate spirit."_

_"Like I care, you asshole!" the girl spat, swinging her foot up and kicking him in the groin, effectively breaking the cup he wore like it was a toothpick._

_"Eh-eh-eh!" the man gasped, hopping around, hands on his crotch, his voice a full two octaves higher._

_The girl smirked._

_The man stood back up, recovered most of the way. "Oh, you'll pay for that."_

_Had the girl's wrists not been cuffed to a chair, she would have crossed her arms over her chest. "Yeah, right. You're not getting me to talk."_

_The man licked his lips. "Who said I wanted you to talk?"_

~Littleroot Town~

"E-tan!"

Lyra's little voice called out to me as I sat at the kitchen table duct-taping my nephew Brendan's sneakers. Groudon, he goes through them fast.

"What is it, kiddo?" I asked.

"Norman's on TV, come look!" she said, taking my hand and trying to tug me out of my chair.

"Okay, okay," I said, swinging Lyra up onto my shoulders and walking into the living room, where the TV was showing the end of a news broadcast.

_"That concludes our special report on Gym Leader Norman! I'll see you next time on Gym Leader Spotlight!" _the reporter, a cheery blond woman with a high ponytail and lots of makeup, chirped as the TV changed to a video game commercial.

"Aww, you missed it," said Brendan, who was sitting on the couch with a cookie.

"Brendan! Play wif me!" Lyra chirped, jumping on top of him.

"GAH! PSYCHOTIC TODDLER!" Brendan wailed melodramatically, prompting Lyra to giggle and chase him around like a monster.

I was watching the scene in amusement when the doorbell rang, three times in a row.

"Ugh, more Brownie scouts pushing cookies," I groaned as I opened the door. Sure, I liked the Lemonades, but did that mean I had to buy them every other day?

What lay beyond the door was definitely not Brownie scouts.

"Keegan Jasper? Miranda Horton, Hoenn Social Services."

Worse times ten. Who, or what, depending on your standards, was a short and skinny woman in her early twenties with thick, shiny, translucent coke-bottle glasses, a business suit, and a clipboard. But do not be fooled by the non-intimidating exterior! Behind those glasses lie a mind sharp as a tack with a honed sense of justice and a _wicked_ chip on her shoulder against me, and in those pockets lie pepper spray and a taser.

Gah, that Horton woman. She was a piece of work, let me tell you! I think she has the power of X-ray vision. I know she just wants the best for Lyra, but trying to catch one slip-up that would even _remotely_ look like child abuse was a little obsessive, am I right?

"Yes, Ms. Horton, and my name is _still_ Ethan," I answered with fake patience. Bad enough I'd gone to _Elementary school_ with her...

"Hm, yes. Anyway, It's been brought to our attention that your cousin, Lyra, whom you have legal custody of, has traveled to Hoenn with you and you have changed both of your citizenships to Hoenese," said Miranda, sorry, _Miss Horton_, primly, jotting something on her clipboard.

"Yes..." I said, puzzled.

Ms. Horton ripped a sheet of paper off of her clipboard and shoved it in my face. Mostly words I couldn't make sense of, my signature, Uncle Nate's signature, and Ms. Horton's as well, and a number circled in red ink. $2000.

_Two thousand fucking dollars!_

I gaped, my knees shaky.

"That's the guardianship contract citizenship transfer fee. You have three months to pay the two grand, or Lyra's moved into foster care until you can pay it off," Ms. Horton explained. "Good day." Then she gave me the paper and walked back into her car.

I knew I really shouldn't be mad at her, but _damn_, she pissed me off. The grade-school tattletale+all grown up=three times the annoyance. She really did want the best for Lyra, I just couldn't understand why she hated me so much. My old friend Steven had suggested she was lesbian for Kris and hated me for taking Kris from her, but that was shot down pretty much right away. I wonder whatever happened to him?

My internal monologue was interrupted by my cell phone buzzing from a video call with no caller ID.

Darkness, except for the red light and white frame lines of a cheap camcorder.

"This thing on? Oh, right. A-ahem," someone, a kid, seemingly, with the cracking voice of an awkward, gangly teenage boy. A light flicked on, and the screen was flooded with light before it dimmed.

My fists clenched. I'd recognize those red hoodies anywhere.

"Ethan Jasper. I represent Team Alpha. Now, we have something you want and you have something we want," he began, seriously trying to be intimidating, but he just...wasn't. Then he was shoved out of the camera view and replaced with a huge guy built like a wall, older than me, maybe twenty-six or twenty-seven.

"Shaddup, Ben. Now, Team Alpha proposes a trade," said the new guy.

"And what makes you think I'll listen?" I said challengingly.

The guy grinned wickedly. "Tell me, does she look familiar?"

The camera was moved to show a girl in her early twenties with black hair in a single scraggly ponytail hanging limply on her back and ragged bangs flopping in her eyes, a bright, strong, stubborn as hell blue that showed although her body may be hurt, she refused to break. Her clothing was ragged and dirty and what looked like scorched in some places. She was covered in bruises, cuts, and burns, and one of her knees seemed twisted in a painful way. Her arms were tied behind her back and cuffed to a chair, her ankles tied roughly with rope, and her mouth was covered by a rag. Though it seemed to me the second you cut her loose, she'd rip off your arm and beat you with it as you bled to death, no matter how battered she looked.

She did seem familiar, now that I got a good look at her. She was looking right at me with a look that seemed almost... pleading.

No.

Fucking.

Way.

"K-Kris?" I sputtered in disbelief, the Fridge Logic setting in. Red hoodie...something I want...trade...oh, Groudon, I'm an idiot.

She nodded, then the camera shifted back to the big guy.

"If you want your dear lover back, then come to Rustboro City. After defeating the gym leader, we will receive a transmission and contact you via your cell phone. You have one week, then-" the guy slid a finger across his throat in a very clear gesture. "You get the picture. Don't be late."

The call disconnected.

I sank to my knees. Kris was in direct danger, Lyra could be taken away from me if I didn't cough up two grand within a month, and Brendan still went through sneakers like Godzilla through Tokyo.

Life was just peachy keen for me, wasn't it?


	3. Chapter 2

_~?~_

_"Aww, how sweet. He remembers," the big guy said to the girl right after shutting off the call. He reached out to touch her face, and she recoiled and tried to headbutt him in the mouth, missing breaking yet another tooth, and hitting his nose hard enough to hear bone snap._

_"Ah-ah-guh-BLOOD!" the big guy said, panicking at the blood springing from his swelling, throbbing nose and fact that his nose was permanently crooked. Then he fainted. A big guy, afraid of seemingly nothing, fainting. How was that for irony?_

_The small guy approached the girl, Kris, cautiously, like a beginning zookeeper might approach a lion he was about to feed. She glared at him. A stream of insults, threats, and profanes directed in his direction came out of her mouth the second the rag was pulled away. The teenager crouched, covering his head._

_"You're pathetic," Kris scoffed. "You're not even worth killing."_

_"D-don't kill m-me!" the boy blubbered. "T-the b-boss would f-fire me!"_

_Kris just rolled her eyes._

~Littleroot Town~

So, recap, I was screwed big-time.

I pulled open the front door, trying not to let my worry show.

"E-tan! Play with us!" Lyra called, waving her stuffed totodile named "Dodo" in the air.

I was about to say no, but then I figured, hey, what could the harm be in playing with her now? "Sure, kiddo."

Lyra shrieked with delight and led me over to where she and Brendan were playing.

_Fladdap._

Huh, mail's here.

I shifted through bills and junk mail and stumbled upon a golden opportunity. Professor Birch, the local pokémon professor, was looking for a capable person to go on a trainer journey. Trainers-if their pokémon didn't die or get confiscated-that got far enough along earned as much as a hundred bucks per battle. _One hundred dollars. _Per _battle._ Training was tough, and you had expenses to pay like food and medicine, but still. A hundred dollars was some serious cash. Twenty battles of that level and I'd be able to keep Lyra in my custody. And by that time, more money'd have stacked up, certainly enough to stop piggybacking off of my brother and support my own weight.

I'd made up my decision, and as soon as Norman or Carrie walked through that door, I was going to talk to them about this and then head to the prof's lab as soon as possible.

"We're home!"

Right on cue.

~Outside Norman's house, several lines of dialogue and ten minutes later, the details of which I see no need to go into, let's just skip through to when I'm about to leave for the prof's lab~

"E-tan?"

Lyra's little voice sounded as she tugged on my pant leg.

I crouched down to her level. "Something on your mind, kiddo?"

"Why do you hafta go?" Lyra asked, her face wet.

I sighed. "Because I love you, Ly, that's why."

"But dat doesn't make sense!" Lyra protested, curling her fists and stamping one foot on the concrete. "If you love me, you'd stay!"

I rubbed her head. "It's complicated."

"Everyfing's comple-cated when you're a grownup," Lyra pouted, folding her arms.

I put my hand on her shoulder. "Lyra. When you're older, you'll understand why I did this. But for now, I need you to remember that you can always call me if you feel lonely. Don't think I'm leaving to forget about you. I'll be back before you know it."

"It's not fair!" Lyra protested, grabbing my leg. "Why can't I go, too?"

I pulled Lyra off. "It's too dangerous."

"I can handle it! You taught me how to frow a punch, remember? And kick a guy between his legs?" Lyra said, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet.

I had to chuckle. That was very true. Partly Kris's influence, she believed every girl should know how to throw a punch before they get to kindergarten. She'd be proud.

I thought a minute. Then I pulled my backwards cap off my head and stuck it onto Lyra's after tightening the strap. Her bangs flopped out the front and the brim rested on her twin ponytails. With her little denim jacket and high-tops, she looked like a very tiny skater girl. She tugged at it, then looked at me.

"Keep it safe for me while I'm gone, alright kiddo?" I asked, patting her on the shoulder.

Lyra looked down, then looked back at me. "Okay. But come back soon, Dodo'll miss you too much."

I chuckled. "Sure thing, Lyra."

Lyra's eyes were shining and she was smiling at me. I stood up and wheeled my bike out from Norman's garage.

"I love you, E-tan!" she called as I biked out of sight, running out behind me and waving both arms.

"Love you too, kiddo," I said as she faded out of earshot.

**-THE DATE: 6/1**

**-TIME LEFT FOR KRIS: 7 DAYS**

**-TIME LEFT FOR LYRA: 92 DAYS**

**-TEAM: 0**

**-DEATHS: 0**

**-CASH: $50**


	4. Chapter 3

_~?~_

_Never stop fighting._

_That was Kris's motto. And it had served her well. Whatever torture they put her through-that houndoom's flamethrower was really the only thing that hurt her and the burns were still healing-, she'd never stop trying to escape until they eventually killed her. And the day they killed her was the day at least three of them died, too. _"Don't die alone," _Ethan had told her. _"Take several people with you."

_In the darkness of the packing crate, Kris smirked. That little bit of wisdom would come in handy. Kris always had a jumble of phrases in her mental pocket, taking them out when she needed them._

_"Hey Ethan," Kris whispered to herself, her voice rusty. "You'd better not die trying to rescue me, you idiot. You haven't forgotten you promised to get me ice cream, right?"_

_Then Kris thought of something. "And if you've gotten a new girlfriend, I'll personally castrate you, you hear?"_

_Kris practically felt Ethan shudder in fear from a hundred miles away. That satisfied her._

~Route 101~

For no reason at all, a wave of fear came over me and I shuddered. It was gone as quickly as it came. Kris must have sworn to castrate me or something from where she was. Scary how I could tell, huh?

Birch's lab was three blocks away, down in the main part of Littleroot. Surprisingly, there was only one other person outside his lab, a girl about Brendan's age.

"No one's here," she said as I rode my bike up. "See, why can't I just go?"

"May, you're too young. The world's a dangerous place," said a woman standing next to her, the prof's wife. I hit the brakes and swung my leg over the crossbar, chaining it up outside

"But dad said I could go if no one showed up!" the girl, May, protested.

It was then Mrs. Birch noticed me. "See, this young man showed!" she said, grabbing my wrist and dangling it in front of May.

"Er...hello?" I said awkwardly.

"Great. Let's have _more_ testosterone running the country! That's worked out _so_ well!" May scoffed, sarcasm dripping off of her words. Then she walked back into the lab, grumbling. "Why can't we be like Sinnoh or Unova? Cynthia and Iris make great Champions! Hoenn's so conservative..."

Mrs. Birch let go of my wrist and sighed. "I'm sorry about that, and about my daughter."

"It's no problem," I said. Mother of Kyogre, that May girl was like a miniature Miranda Horton.

"So, you responded to my husband's ad?" Mrs. Birch asked. "Sorry, he's not here. He's out on Route 101, studying wild pokémon and probably nearly getting himself killed. Again."

I nodded. "I'll just meet him there, then. Thanks, Mrs. Birch."

She smiled and I got back on my bike.

"Be careful, those pokémon are dangerous!" she called as I rode off.

~Exit of Littleroot Town~

Apparently there's a sign at the entrance to Route 101 that I wasn't aware of. _Littleroot Town, the town that can't be shaded any hue. _Huh. Well, you learn something new every day.

A group of five kids, the oldest maybe eight, the youngest about Lyra's age, three-and a half, as she'd keep reminding me halves were very important-, played what looked like a combination basketball and rock-paper-scissors with kid-sized hoops on someone's driveway, however you imagine that. The smallest kid, a boy with dark blue hair and glasses balancing precariously on his tiny nose, stood on the sidelines and watched as the older kids played, looking like he wanted to join, but he didn't want to make anyone angry by butting in and getting in the way. He kept looking nervously back into the heavily overgrown Route 101, like something would erupt from the undergrowth at any second.

"Dere's somefing in the woods," he said to the older kids, twiddling his fingers covered by his large turtleneck's sleeves. "It howled."

A girl about six with crooked braids and two missing front teeth rolled her eyes. "Ugh, Jason, not that again."

"It's too," said the little boy, Jason.

"Liar," the girl muttered.

A chubby boy maybe seven with curly red hair chucked the ball at Jason. "If you make the basket," he said. "We might believe you. How'sat, Sarah?"

The girl, presumably Sarah, shrugged. "I don't think he'll make it, Rudy. But whatever, let the kid try."

Jason looked conflicted as he held the ball, the size of his head. "O-okay," he said nervously as he walked to the hoop, aimed, and threw the ball. It missed by about two feet.

"Knew it," scoffed Sarah. Then with fake sympathy, she said, "Sorry, little bro. Maybe when you're a foot taller."

Jason looked at his shoes as he handed the ball back to the redheaded kid, Rudy. A pair of black twins, a boy and a girl about five, nudged each other and laughed. Then the older kids went back to their bizarre game.

"Dere was somefing dere," he muttered, trying to convince himself. "Dere was!"

I wondered if there really had been something that howled. No matter. The point was, the prof was out there with my ticket to two grand and Kris. I couldn't pay attention to the words of a little kid.

~Route 101~

I couldn't ride my bike on the overgrown path, so I got off and walked it. The path was rocky and relatively straight, but sometimes so-called "wild trainers," trainers not with a starter from any region that had wrangled or befriended wild pokémon, popped out of the undergrowth and demanded a battle. They battled for money, since they didn't get a salary from the league. Trainer's salary increased with each badge earned. At the beginning, after registration but before the first badge, salary's about $50 per week. It increases by $100 with each badge, and if the trainer becomes champion, then the salary goes from $850 to an even $1000, with a $500 bonus. As I said, training's good money. A lot of wild trainers didn't choose to be trainers. A lot of 'em had stories that ranked on the kleenex scale, from their parents were between jobs and they were saving for college, to they were saving up for a bike for their sibling's tenth birthday, to they were going to start a charity to stop pokémon abuse. Chances were, a good 50% of those stories were fake and they were trying to make easy money for drugs or something.

I'm off topic again.

But since I've got your attention, I should explain some stuff. See, about a hundred or so years ago and before, pokémon didn't exist. Instead there were what we called "animals," like pokémon but way less awesome because pitting them against each other in battles to the death was illegal and because none of them could shoot fire or make things fly around. Then after some scientists at Silph co. in Kanto in 1912 were messing around with animal/human DNA and elemental powers, some bad stuff happened, the lab exploded, and the so far 649 discovered pokémon along with who knows how many other species escaped into the wild, reproduced, demolished all the regular animals, and generally changed the world as we know it within six months. So these pokémon are like humans, you see? They're bipedal and primates and can talk, but you can tell what's pokémon and what isn't because of, depending on the species, they have differently colored skin, fur, scales, or feathers in some places, tails, different ears, markings on skin, weird hair, whatever. A lot of times, they blend in with human society and just live among people in harmony. Some live in human cities or with human families, some travel around the land through the wilderness. Sometimes pokémon protest to being controlled by humans. Most of the time, though, they work with us as partners. The way some scientists figure it is that pokémon have as much free will as humans do, they just choose to trust humans they deem worthy and fight alongside them. A lot of times, it's not just the pokémon that fight, the trainers can jump in, too. It's been documented of trainers battling with their own fists when their pokémon are killed or knocked out, like in WWII. And it goes both ways, too. I recently read about a martial arts warrior that got killed by a stray attack, and the guy's Machoke fought the battle as both the pokémon and the trainer.

Damn, that was a long internal monologue. But hey, now you know how the world works.

Nothing or no one jumped out at me to demand a battle as I approached the bend in the road up ahead.

That's when trouble started.

See, normally, pokémon really aren't that much of a problem to travelers. This wasn't one of those times. Some pokémon are tricksters, setting traps for travelers. Usually just harmless pranks, but, well, when anyone says "what could possibly go wrong?" of course then _everything_ does.

I, foolishly, stepped on a tripwire. I bet it was just to dump a bucket of water on me or something because said bucket fell down and splashed onto the ground right after I'd started rolling downhill with my body tangled in my bike. The sleeve of my T-shirt got caught in the chain, the rest was just dragged along the ground like a large, painful snowball. Branches whacked my head, rocks poked through my clothes, and I think I swallowed a bug. I came to a stop at the base of a tree. I know because my head hit against it and I saw stars for a second.

Ow.

Have you ever tried to detangle yourself from a wrecked bicycle? It isn't fun. Snapped spokes are sharp and pointy, twisted metal-the hell?-cuts like glass, and then there's the fact that metal can't bend under regular human strength. Just for future reference.

I did manage to get myself, with all fingers and toes intact, away from the mangled bike.

A text on my phone buzzed in.

_Remember, you've got a week left. Better hurry, Romeo, tick-tock, tick-tock!_

_-TM_

Those bastards. Another message came a minute later, from the same phone.

_dnt cme u idt thyll kill u_

_ll b fne u wry bout urslf_

_miss u so bad ethn_

_lv u_

_krs_

Kris. She must've stolen the phone to send the message. Obviously hurried, because normally Kris always used perfect grammar and spelling. She was a nut like that.

I didn't notice the bag sitting at the base of the tree at first. I'd look later and see that it was old, brown leather with faded patches, washed-out coffee stains, and some fresher, darker stains on the old-fashioned handle. I was a little busy noticing the growling coming from behind me.

Slowly, I turned around, sliding my phone into my pocket. I saw a poochyena, a female poochyena, maybe around twelve or thirteen in human years, with her fingers and claws stained red, some of the same stuff around her mouth, on her chin, dribbling down her neck, and soaking into the collar of the silky fur in her dark gray tank top. Her light gray short skirt's jagged hem was stained with redness. The thigh-high socks she wore, dark gray like her shirt, had red soaking down from the knees, trailing into the tops of her black combat boots.

She hadn't seen me yet. I forgot about my bike and backed up, very slowly and quietly.

Stupid me had forgotten that pokémon had better hearing than humans.

Her head whipped around, jet-black hair whirling. Her eyes focused on me, intense hate evident as if she'd been wearing her heart on her sleeve.

I had to admit, I was a little scared. I'd never really been scared of a pokémon before, but this was a creepy kid.

She regarded me, lowering her hand. A sinister half-grin spread over her face.

That was when I noticed something at the base of the tree. A guy wearing a lab coat was backed up against the tree trunk. His forearm was bleeding, and he was holding a scrap of torn fabric to try and stem the bleeding. Next to the tree was a dead guy, blood still fresh. I could tell he was dead because he wasn't moving and hey, weren't human beings supposed to have two arms?

The guy in the lab coat must have been Professor Birch. His wife sure wasn't kidding when she said the pokémon were dangerous.

"You! Catch!" the Prof called, tossing a sphere from his pocket through the air towards me. It enlarged from marble-sized to baseball-sized in midair. I snatched it out of the air and looked at it. A pokéball.

This was what I'd been waiting for! Not exactly what I'd imagined, but hey, beggars can't be choosers.

I didn't need a manual to know what to do next.

"Go, whoever you are!" I called, throwing the enlarged pokéball.

The pokémon inside was male, about twelve human years old, with caucasian skin and dark green longish hair covered by a lime green beanie with a pair of green goggles on top. He wore a two-sizes-too-big lime green hoodie unzipped over a red T-shirt, lime green cargo pants, and dark green sneakers. Dark green suspenders were looped around through his belt loops on both sides. A crash-scarred skateboard with a black background and a dark green silhouette of a pokémon on it was slung over his back.

He stretched and yawned. Then, blearily blinking, he adjusted his goggles and looked to me.

"Hey man, you woke me up. What's up with that?" wasn't what I expected to be the words out of his mouth. Then again, what did I expect?

"Battle," the Prof said weakly as the poochyena sized up my pokémon, a treeko, I think.

Treeko pushed his goggles down on his head.

"You wouldn't hit a lil' girl, would you?" Poochyena asked sweetly, cocking her head and folding her arms behind her back in an innocent-looking pose. Her voice, I now noticed, had an accent. Tennessee, if I wasn't mistaken.

Treeko stumbled backwards, nearly falling but catching himself. "Whoa, stars everywhere...I thought it was daytime..."

Dammit, he was confused.

"Uh, use Pound!" I ordered an attack.

"The hot bitch is that way, right?" Treeko said, dazed, and swinging wildly with his hand. Poochyena leaped nimbly out of the way.

"Bitch, eh? Why, thank you, sugar!" said Poochyena, patting Treeko's cheek as he tried to orient himself.

"Treeko, snap out of it! Try a Pound attack again!" I called. The attacks came as naturally as breathing.

Treeko spun around in a circle, then hit himself in the face. "Ouch."

Poochyena laughed. "Silly boy, I should've figured you couldn't hit me." Her tone changed from as if she were scolding a naughty puppy to a condescending, conniving tone. "After all, there's no way you're in ma league."

A Taunt attack. But I thought poochyena couldn't learn Taunt until level, like, forty or something! And I was pretty sure they couldn't learn Charm at all.

Treeko shook his head and snapped himself out of the confusion.

"What? You can't say that!" he said, registering she'd insulted him.

"Spam Pound! Don't let her get you!" I called to Treeko, who nodded and obeyed, swinging Pound attacks left and right. They did touch her a couple of times, but they only grazed her. (The nosebleed Treeko got when one attack skimmed her chest didn't help. At all.)

That poochyena was a mutant or something. Treeko was almost worn out, but Poochyena was still raring to go.

She flashed him a seductive smile with jagged teeth, then ran forward with her fangs bared for a Bite. She chomped her teeth on Treeko's shoulder, tearing through his hoodie as Treeko shouted with pain, almost spent.

Treeko fell back onto his knees, panting.

"Come on, buddy! You can do it!" I cheered him on.

A green aura of sorts surrounded him. Energy renewed and yellow eyes glowing green, he charged and pounded Poochyena across the face, knocking her down. Then he thrust his fist into her solar plexus, making her hack up some blood.

Staggeringly, she propped herself up on an elbow and grimaced at him. "Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit," she muttered in surprise.

Treeko, still glowing, answered her by sending one final blow into her neck.

Poochyena flew off and landed with a thud on the ground, unmoving.

The aura faded from Treeko. He blinked and looked at his hands.

"No way...I won..." he said, nodding to himself. "Sweet."

"Yes! That's what I'm talking about!" I couldn't help cheering, running over to clap my teammate on the back like I'd done to Brendan when he won his third grade soccer game.

Treeko laughed, giving me a thumbs-up sign.

Professor Birch groaned, maybe out of pain, maybe to remind us he was still here.

I called Treeko back to his pokéball and helped the prof back to his lab.

~Professor Birch's lab, Littleroot town~

"Again, thanks for coming out there, Ethan," said the prof for the fourth time.

"It's no problem, Professor," I said for the fourth time.

"Now Ethan, I'm not going to give you the Big Speech I give a lot of trainers. Instead I'm going to give you a pokédex, the treeko you used, and wish you luck," said the prof. He was probably as eager as I was to get out of his lab. Kris's clock was ticking.

And that was how I wound up with a treeko and a pokédex, on the way to Rustboro. Training time.

After reading this text message.

_Change of plans, loverboy. Instead of a week, you've got three hours. Instead of Rustboro, meet us on Route 103. The stakes are higher, but so's the prize. You'd like to see your girlfriend again, wouldn't you? Route 103, three hours, don't be late._

_-TM._

_ethn u idt itz a trp thyll kl u dnt cme_

_krs_

Well, no matter what Kris says, I'm going. I don't care if she murders me when I get there, I'm gonna see her again.

If it's the last thing I do.

**-THE DATE: 6/1**

**-TIME LEFT FOR KRIS: 3 HOURS**

**-TIME LEFT FOR LYRA: 92 DAYS**

**-TEAM: 1**

**-DEATHS: 0**

**-CASH: $50**


	5. Chapter 4

_~Approximately 25000 feet above Route 102 within a helicopter~_

_Edmund had always hated heights. He didn't let anyone know that, of course, but he despised high places with every fiber of his being. Which was why he was keeping away from the windows of the Team Alpha chopper. Arms crossed, dark sunglasses, one combat booted foot against the wall, back arched to the same degree as the sloping wall, he stood._

_Seeing that girl Kris, the one with the thing for fire-types, literally beg the boss to leave the other kid Ethan alone, it actually tugged a heartstring. She must love that Ethan boy a lot to try and sacrifice herself to save him. It was like something out of a fairytale he used to read his sister at night when she was a younger kid. How old was she now, eleven? Twelve? Too old for fairytales by now. Edmund wouldn't admit it, but he really missed her._

_Edmund shook the weak thoughts out of his head. _Damn you, Edmund. Now isn't the time to get all soft. You've got a job to do.

_Casting a cool glance to the grunts texting Ethan about Maxie's change in strategy, he saw Kris steal the phone and send a quick text to Ethan. It took three grunts to wrestle her back into the crate. Abernathy, one of the crueler grunts, slapped her across the face, grabbed her roughly by the neck, and slammed her head against the wood as they put the cover back on as she shook her head, disoriented. Then he walked away, cursing and holding a bag of frozen peas to his cheek._

_Edmund smirked. This was his kind of chick if she'd gotten a few hits in. Not that he'd date her or anything. He was a houndoom, she was a human. Besides, she had a boyfriend and that wouldn't be very cool of her to cheat._

_"Punks," Edmund muttered as the grunts walked off, griping about Kris's latest groin kick. He didn't like what Team Alpha was doing. Wasn't Hoenn just fine the way it was? He'd leave Team Alpha if he could. But like anyone with a status above "Executive Grunt" would ever listen to him._

~Route 103, just outside of Oldale town~

"...Which is why we need to get to the end of Route 103 as quickly as possible," I breathlessly explained to Stanley as I sprinted down the beaten path, having returned Stanley to his ball.

"That's messed up," said Stanley, his voice canned-sounding.

"No kidding," I panted.

"So this Kris...exactly how far does your relationship extend?" Stanley asked.

"She's my girlfriend," I said. "Stan, we were nineteen when she got kidnapped. We barely had time for anything between Kris's job and my job. So you get your mind out of the gutter!"

"It's only perverted if you think it's perverted," said Stanley.

"Damn you, Stanley," I muttered as I swatted a branch out of the way. Why was Route 103 so overgrown?

_~Champion Juan Inter-regional Airport, Team Alpha private helipad~_

_Lucifer Maxwell Warreck, or just "Maxie," as he was called, greatly enjoyed other's suffering for a reason he couldn't understand. When he was young, it started as simple malicious acts such as pouring salt on slugs and spraying anthills with a hose. As he got older it grew into merciless cruelty, then blossomed into full-blown cold sadism when he turned seventeen. He was ruthless, struck swiftly, and left no loose ends._

_Team Alpha was considered a serious force by some, and a gang of weirdos by others. Maxie paid no attention to them. When Team Alpha struck at the Johto Embassies in Heartholme city, Maxie felt a surge of delicious power that came from being behind the controls. When Team Alpha dealt the next blow at Dragonspiral Tower in Unova, Maxie nearly passed out with a grin on his face so wide it nearly split his face open._

_Because Maxie was a terrorist. And Maxie liked it that way._

_Team Alpha was a feared and widely cursed name among people of all regions, from the southern tip of Unova to the barren deserts of Orre to the bustling cities of Kanto. They struck quickly, struck silently, and took no prisoners._

_Unless, of course, the situation called for it. But you know what they say. "If you want to make an omelet, you've got to break a few eggs."_

_Hands behind back, Maxie walked out onto the helipad's tarmac as casually as if he were walking through a grocery store. Flanked by his trusted pokémon, Sigmund and Khione, he strolled out to meet his partner and girlfriend, Arachne "Archie" Crane. His best friend and opposite in every way(aside from the malignant sadism, of course), it was Archie that had come up with this plan to rule Hoenn. Archie that had started Team Alpha up. Archie that had distracted the police force as Maxie's half of Team Alpha struck. It was all Archie._

_Arachne by name and spider-like by nature, Archie could strike fear into anyone's heart from miles away. She was tall, slender, and hispanic, with long, dark hair tucked behind a blue bandana._

_"I don't have time for this, Lucy," she snapped, coming up to him with a scowl on her pretty face._

_Maxie almost cringed. How he hated that name. There was a reason he went by Maxie._

_"You've gone and changed the plan again, without my consent! Do you realize how annoying that is?" Archie said, sticking a manicured finger onto his chest._

_Maxie calmly removed her hand. "Archie, dear, there is no need to live in the past. The plan has changed, live with it."_

_"You _cabrón_!" Archie huffed._

_Maxie remained calm and strolled over to the crate that his grunts were carrying out of the chopper. It was silent from inside. The girl must have fallen asleep._

_Archie sighed, "Where's her clock?_

_Maxie checked his watch. "Two hours left."_

_Archie gave a sinister grin. "With any luck, he'll be at the end of Route 103 by the time she's got about fifteen minutes left. The grunts battle him, while his dear Krissy's life slips away like sand through his fingers. And when he's done battling, three...two...one..."_

_Maxie put his arm over her shoulders. "And that, my dear Arachne, is why I love you."_

_Archie smacked him on the shoulder. "Don't call me that."_

~Route 103~

I checked my watch as I came to a stop about 3/4s of the way down Route 103. An hour and a half left. I was making pretty good time, eh? I took a swig of water from the bottle I'd grabbed, then wiped my mouth and continued, swatting branches away.

_~End of Route 103~_

_Hodge fanned his sweaty self with a folded-up map, collapsing into a folding chair. Abernathy sat in the other chair, a cooler of beer between them. The girl was refusing to look at anyone and glared at the ground, but it was clear her hatred was focused on them. Hodge had tied the chain around her neck to a low tree branch in a knot he could undo, but it wouldn't come free if you pulled on it._

_"I don't get it," said Abernathy, looking at the girl with confusion. "She's a chick. But she refuses to scream or cry. That's the best part!"_

_Hodge shrugged. Things like that were beyond his mind. So Hodge popped open a can of beer from the cooler and drained the can with one swig. Then he crushed the can with his fist and tossed it over his shoulder. It landed in the branches of a tree._

_"When will the kid get here, anyway? I'm bored," Abernathy groaned._

_"A half-hour left," said the new kid, Ben, leaning against a tree._

_"Ohh," said Hodge. He'd been wondering about that._

~End of Route 103~

Finally...I'm here...and damn, I need a nap. And a shower.

No time for that!

I could see Kris through the trees. She was chained at her wrists and ankles, with a thick iron collar connected to another chain tied to a tree around her neck. She had a fresh bruise on her cheek, and another on her neck above the collar line. She didn't look like she was in pain, though. She looked like she wanted to get out of there. And I would get her out of there if it killed me.

~Route 103~

Waiting for your life to end can be extremely boring. One can count only so many blades of grass before it turns into this smudge of green.

How much time did I have left again? Twenty minutes?

I'd been internally debating what would be a better way to go, drowning or burning, when none other than my idiot boyfriend ran out from the overgrown Route shouting,

"TEEEEEEEAM ALPHAAAAA! COOOOME GET SOOOOOME!"

Facepalm. But at the same time, part of me was going _"D'awww!"_

Abernathy and Hodge shoved the kid, Ben, out to battle. It struck me as odd that they were shoving this teenager into battle and hadn't brought pokémon themselves. They reminded me of some kids at school when I was younger, the ones that were always causing trouble and picking on the other kids.

Ethan hadn't seemed to have caught my gaze. Maybe he knew that when he saw me, his knees would turn to gelatin.

He had a steely focus around him. Nothing was going to stop him from whooping Team Alpha's sorry ass.

Ethan pulled a pokéball off of his belt...and threw it.

~Route 103~

I braced myself as Ethan threw the ball. Light flooded in. I felt myself turn to plasma and then reassemble on the outside as me, a treeko.

So that was what this "Kris" lady looked like. Ethan had said they'd kept her for five years. Damn, no wonder she looked like she'd been dragged behind a truck. She didn't really look like she felt it though, more like she'd murder you in some gruesome way if you so much as looked at her or her boyfriend funny. Strong legs, she probably kicks. I'd bet my Starly Hawk skateboard that she kicked shins when she was a kid.

The Alpha grunt, a kid that looked barely old enough to drive, sent out a zubat I pitied on sight. A boy about nine or ten, with dark sunglasses and dark blue hair. He had a dark blue turtleneck and jeans the same color, and his bangs almost covered his shades. A red and blue band with an A on it was tied tightly around his upper arm. He had wings, purple things with a span of twelve feet. His clothes were baggy and his cheeks were sunken, plenty of info to tell this 'mon he didn't get enough to eat. Alphor, the grunt called him. A strong name for a measly little kid.

_"Kill me," _he begged. _"Free me."_

I didn't want to. I could tell Ethan didn't, either.

Ethan held up his hands and said, "I don't want to fight you. You told me to meet you here and you'd give Kris back to me with an exchange."

One of the grunts, a big muscle-y guy a few years older than Ethan, stood up and said, "The Orb. Where's the Blue Orb?"

Ethan blinked. "I...don't know," he said. "What are you talking about?"

"Liar!" the grunt roared. "You have the Blue Orb, hand it over!"

Ethan looked down. "Give me Kris first."

The grunt threw up his hands. Then he stomped over to where Ethan's lady was, grabbed her by the neck, dragged her over, and threw her at his feet. Ethan immediately wrapped his arms around her as if to keep her from getting away from him again.

I had been looking at the scene when Alphor stuck a Leech Life dart into my shoulder. All it did was sting a little, but when it hit, it made me dizzy and I almost fell over.

When I got my bearings, the Alpha grunts and Alphor were gone. Damn them, treating a 'mon that way! They need an asskick sandwich from Chef Stanley!

Oh yeah, and Ethan and Kris started swapping spit. I returned myself into the pokéball before anything came off.

**-THE DATE: 6/1**

**-TIME LEFT FOR LYRA: 92 DAYS**

**-TEAM: 1**

**-DEATHS: 0**

**-CASH: $50**


	6. Chapter 5

~Route 103, the next morning~

I don't know why Ethan gave up his sleeping bag to Kris. They're dating, it'd be perfectly acceptable if they just shared it. And Kris really didn't have to hit me after I suggested this. I knew better than to say they might as well go the extra mile since they're back together and all that jazz.

I feel sorry for humans. They don't get to be in pokéballs. Pokéballs make the best mattresses EVER. Well, the inside. It's like you're in there, but your body isn't there. Your consciousness, I guess it'd be. And inside it's infinite blackness, like outer space. And you're weightless. Like you're really in space, but you can breathe. You just let yourself completely go, and you just drift forever, and every inch of your body is supported no matter which way you move. How have I survived without that?

Anyway, on the subject of band-aids, Ethan got some stuff for Kris from the Oldale Town Wal-Mart. Band-aids and an _Oldale Onix _T-shirt and stuff like that.

"...And when we get back to Littleroot, we're getting you a blood test," Ethan finished.

Kris looked confused. "Why?"

"Be-_cause_, Kris, you're a young woman that had been held captive by a bunch of criminals. And nothing ever happened?" Ethan asked.

Kris thought a minute, then said, "Well, it's not like they didn't _try, _but everyone pretty much learned to steer clear after about a week. Did you know it's possible to castrate a man if you kick them in the nuts hard enough?"

Oh Arceus, I am loving this chick more every minute. Not like love love, but you know what I mean.

Ethan crossed his legs and tried really hard not to look intimidated by his girlfriend.

Something in the trees rustled.

"Hiya!" something behind me chirped. I fell backwards off of the rock I was sitting in. Upside down, I saw that it was a girl with loosely tied and lopsided pigtails, the way pigtails are if you sleep on them and try to do them yourself, dark brown with twigs sticking out. She had dark blue eyes and a chipped front tooth, and her clothes were rumpled and dirt-smudged as if she'd slept on the ground.

Ethan stared in disbelief. "May?"

The girl grinned, flipping down from the tree with such ease I wondered if she were part cat. "Yup!"

Ethan facepalmed. "What are you doing here?"

The kid, May, shrugged. "Just helping Dad with some research stuff. He told me to look for you and give you some stuff."

"What kind of stuff?" Ethan asked.

May put a fist on her hips. "Well, your brother said you'd left your deodorant at his house, and dad forgot to give you your balls."

I burst out laughing, earning a facepalm from Ethan and death glares from both May and Kris. What? It was funny.

Ethan took the package from May. "Thanks, May. Does your dad know you followed me overnight?"

May shifted her feet. "That's complicated. Anyway, later!"

Then, just as quickly as she came, the weird cat-girl left.

"Pokéballs!" Ethan said, opening the package. "I figured."

"Hey, teammates!" I realized. "Dude, you should catch a wingull!"

"If I run into one," Ethan murmured. "They're about as rare in this area as wurmple. All it is here zigzagoon and poochyena."

"It's worth a try," said Kris. "And it's always good to have a flying-type early on."

"Yeah, you'd know," said Ethan. "What's her name? Wyvern?"

Kris bit her lip. "It's Wyvern now. But before Wyvern was Lindbergh, and then Scout before him. Scout was the one always stealing your hat."

I looked confused. "Who were those 'mons?" I asked.

"Kris's pokémon," Ethan answered. "Wyvern's her flygon. Lindbergh's a senile old dragonite. And Scout ...her pidgeotto."

"Enough talk of the past. We getting some new teammates or not?" said Kris, holding up a fist. But I could tell there was a whole lot of sadness behind the names of those pokémon.

"Yeah!" I said, jumping up. "Let's get us a wingull!"

Ethan held his hands up in a stop-everything gesture. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Kris, you shouldn't come with us. It's too-"

"Blah blah blah dangerous, I know. People kept saying that to me about training years ago. Did that stop me?" said Kris, folding her arms.

"You weren't going to train at all until someone said not to," said Ethan. "You're so contrary."

"Maybe I am, so what?" Kris shot back.

I sighed and returned myself. It was going to be a long journey.

~Route 101~

Sometimes I wonder how I managed to fall in love with a girl so beautiful, yet so incredibly, infuriatingly stubborn.

Kris walked beside me, a satisfied smile on her face. We'd managed to get the various chains off, and she'd cleaned up. Aside from the varying burns and bruises, she looked like a regular girl.

I really should know better than to argue with her by now.

Stanley, probably fed up with our arguing, had returned himself long ago and was napping. I could tell because I could hear him snoring like a chainsaw from his pokéball.

I gently shook the ball and said, "Stan. Wake up. We're gonna catch some teammates."

Stanley groaned, "Can't Kris fight them? She's vicious!"

"No. Now stay awake."

"Blargh, fine."

Kris stuck her hands in the pockets of her jeans. Well, technically, they were my jeans, she was just borrowing them and using a belt. She looked around, drinking in the scenery.

"I wonder what the chances are of finding a wingull in this area," Kris mused, walking backwards through the tall, dark grass. "I mean, you wouldn't think it'd be a less and less the further away we are from the ocean, but-"

Kris's foot caught on a root sticking out of the ground and she fell backwards at the feet of, lo and behold, a wingull.

"Battle me!" he demanded out of the blue, sticking his finger into my face, Phoenix-Wright style. Bold nature for sure, I thought.

A male wingull with pale blond hair, wearing a white T-shirt, orange goggles, yellow shorts, a pair of yellow rubber boots, blue and white fingerless gloves and a blue raincoat with the sleeves pushed up.

I almost chuckled. This kid, about ten or eleven, looked kind of comical, like he thought he was in a cartoon. (As far as I know, we're not in a cartoon. I'd say my life is more of a movie or book.)

"Alright! A wingull!" Stanley cheered as he popped out of his pokéball.

"Ready to battle, Stan?" I asked.

"Born ready, bro!" said Stanley.

And so the battle began.

~Route 101~

This guy, this treeko. He looked easy. Easy to beat, easy to hit, easy to make cry. Almost not worth my time, since I'm gonna be the best pelliper ever, and prove everyone wrong that pelliper are useless! But even a champion has to start somewhere, right? No matter how awesome they become! And that's what I'm gonna be, a champion's pokémon! Meaning I'll be a champ, too!

But back to the battle. I could destroy this chump easy, but I paced myself. So I started off with a Growl attack, to scare this poser off.

It didn't seem to work so well, because the grass dude hit me with an Absorb attack and sapped like half my energy.

I still had some left, so I spurted a water gun right at his face! It was SO awesome!

But then the trainer guy threw a ball at me. It hit me on the forehead and sucked me inside.

I didn't struggle. This dude looked like he'd be a good trainer, and a strong one, worthy for a 'mon like me. So then the thing clicked and I was his pokémon. And hell yeah, I would be the best wingull ever!

Then he let me out.

"Yo chief! Your life just got a hundred-million pre-cent better, 'cuz now I'm on your team!" I announced, sticking out my finger to prove my point. "Sullivan the wingull of Route 103, at your service! But watch out, 'cuz you might not be able to handle my pure AWESOMENESS!"

"Sullivan, eh?" said the trainer. "Well, good to have you on the team. I'm Ethan." Then he gestured to a chick standing next to him and the 'mon that I'd fought. "That's Kris, my girlfriend, and Stanley the treeko."

"Sup, man," said the treeko, sticking out his fist.

I bumped it, sealing the deal. "Okay, well! Who's ass do I kick first?"

**-THE DATE: 6/2**

**-TIME LEFT FOR LYRA: 91 DAYS**

**-TEAM: 2**

**-DEATHS: 0**

**-CASH: $50**


	7. Chapter 6

**New teammates get!**

**1. Seedot, "Jojo"**

**Age 8**

**Naive nature**

**Male**

**-Bide**

**-Harden**

**2. Wurmple, "Samuel"**

**Age 8**

**Timid nature**

**Male**

**-String Shot**

**-Tackle**

~Petalburg City~

"Okay, thirty-four bucks," I mumbled, looking through my wallet. "Yep, I'm screwed."

"What are you talking about?" Kris wondered, nudging my arm as we walked through Petalburg City, on our way to the Gym to pay my brother a visit.

"Nothing," I lied, not wanting to worry her. "I'm just on a budget. It's no big deal."

I could tell Kris didn't believe me, but she let it go. That girl was just too smart for her own good.

I'd returned my pokémon, so right now, it was just me and Kris. Like old times, except we were five years older.

Something caught Kris's eyes, as they widened to the size of dinner plates.

"Ooh, Ethan! Ice cream!"

And just like that, she turned from a cool, calm, and collected twenty-three-year-old woman to a second-grader.

I studied the old-style ice cream parlor, then shifted my gaze to Kris's pleading face.

"Eh, what the hell," I caved.

That was how I'd walked into Petalburg Gym holding a chocolate ice-cream double scoop in one hand and an immensely satisfied Kris's hand in the other. Vanilla and hot fudge and rainbow jimmies were slathered all over her face.

Before we went into the gym, I handed Kris about three dozen napkins and told her to clean her face off.

I pushed open the huge, oak double doors to my brother's gym and walked through.

Inside, my brother was sitting at the head of a huge battlefield in a La-Z-Boy recliner on top of a small stage. Bleachers lined the walls and four huge screens were mounted in the center of each wall. The room was lined with various plants, palm trees and bushes and such. I'd been told normal-types liked greenery. Doors to the back were on either side of the stage. A very fat slaking was lounging under a palm tree, sleeping. A skitty and a ditto were talking with each other while an ambipom sat in one of the branches of the trees. Two slakoth were lying down eating berries on the bleachers, one of which greatly resembled Brendan.

Norman himself was dozing in his chair, staring at the ceiling.

Then his ambipom, Cody, if I'm not mistaken, snatched my ice cream right out of my hand and was about to eat it when one of the scoops fell the ten feet down onto my brother's head.

"CODY!" Norman yelled, jumping about a foot.

"Visitors, Norman," Cody cackled, swinging onto the branches.

"Hey, bro," I greeted him. "Been awhile."

A grin spread across Norman's face. "Ethan. What brings you here?"

I clapped Norman on the shoulder. "I was in town. Decided to stop by."

Norman yanked me into one of his crushing bear hugs he always pulled on me when we were younger. He was on the wrestling team as a sophomore, so he would practice on me, his little brother, who was six at the time. Needless to say, I experienced several hospital visits thanks to him. It wasn't like he meant to break my leg in two places, he just didn't know his own strength. And still doesn't.

"Air," I choked as Norman let go sheepishly.

He took notice of Kris, who had been standing behind me. He looked from Kris to me, and you could practically see the gears in his head turning.

"So you're not dead?" he said next.

Kris shook her head. "Never was."

It looked like Norman was about to say something when a berry fell down from above and clonked me on the head. That damned monkey!

"Sorry, Ethan, haha! Visitor!" said Cody. "Cackle mischievously" was clearly his default mode.

Norman nodded. "I'd been expecting him."

I looked to the front doors and saw a kid around Brendan's age with green hair peeking in through the doors.

"Come in, Wally," Norman called. The kid, with difficulty, pushed open the doors and shuffled up to my brother.

"H-hi, Mister Jasper," said the kid timidly. He reminded me of Samuel, kind of. "C-can I have my pokémon?"

Norman chuckled sheepishly. "Well, I was going to help you catch your pokémon, but I've got a bit of a mess. Ethan, can you help?"

Wally looked to me. "You're Mister Jasper's brother?"

I nodded. "I guess, and sure. I just go out and teach this kid how to catch a pokémon, right?"

Norman nodded. "I'm going to get cleaned up."

I sighed. "Well, okay then. Let's go. C'mon, Kris."

"Actually," Kris began. "Norman, can I use your phone? I've got a lot of calls to make."

"Sure," said Norman. "Phone's in the back. Ethan, be careful. Those pokémon can be dangerous."

~Route 104~

"Okay Wally, all you've gotta do is weaken the pokémon you want to catch, throw a pokéball, and catch it," I explained to Wally as we passed through the fence that separated Petalburg City from the wilds of Route 104.

"That's all?" Wally asked.

I shrugged. "Pretty much."

"That's easy! I can do that!" said Wally earnestly.

I stopped and took him by the shoulder, then bent down to look him in the eye. "Remember this, though. Never give up. Never forget. And train like hell."

Wally nodded. "Okay!"

As we walked into the patches of tall grass, something about the air felt chilly despite the fact that it was June, like something was going to happen. Something I wouldn't like.

Wally looked uneasy as he stepped into the grass, which came over his head and up to my shoulder, and looked around.

"Wait, Wally," I said. "When you're looking for a new teammate, you'll want a pokémon either out or at hand. Here, use Jojo."

I let out my new seedot. His acorn-like helmet was cock-eyed, but he adjusted it and pushed his thick glasses up on the bridge of his nose by both arms. And for good measure, I also called out Samuel, my wurmple.

"Hi, chief!" Jojo said brightly.

"Hey Jojo. Can you help Wally catch a pokémon?" I asked.

"Okay!" Jojo agreed readily. "Hi!"

"H-hi," said Wally nervously.

Wally and Jojo started looking around for pokémon as Sammy and I hung back and watched.

"Why did you call me?" Sammy asked, fiddling with the sleeves of his turtleneck.

"Backup," I assured him.

The next thing I heard was a scream.

~Route 104~

I heard something. Something brushed my shoulder.

Without thinking, I Bit the offender. Then I stumbled back, tears springing from my eyes at what I'd done.

"Oh my Arceus, I'm so sorry, are you okay?" I sputtered. I'd Bit a seedot, barely eight years old, on the shoulder. He'd fallen down on his knees, his hand gripping his shoulder, which was bleeding intensely.

I tasted the metallic tang of blood. His blood. I wanted to vomit. I wanted to cry. I wanted to erase this last minute and redo it.

The kid screamed. Almost instantly, a wurmple, a human kid a little older, and a tall, muscle-y guy.

"I didn't mean to..." I said, sobbing. "He startled me and I-and I-"

The wurmple didn't talk, he just lunged. Right away, I noticed that his spine was locked. If he hit me at that speed, at the least, he'd pop a few vertebrae. At worst, he'd break his spine and lose the use of his legs. Check that, he was charging headfirst, so at the least he'd sprain his neck, at worst break his skull.

I let him Tackle me. I didn't want to hurt anyone else.

He slammed me into the trunk of a tree. I had the wind knocked out of me, but I heard the sickening _crack _of at least one bone snapping like a twig. He fell to the ground, screaming and crying.

On my shaky legs, I stood up, tears and blood streaming down my face.

"I-I'm sorry," I sobbed. "I'm so sorry..."

The human kid looked afraid at first, but he picked up a stone and threw it at me. It hit me in the knee, knocking me down. I tried to stand back up and run, but the grass was so slippery with blood that my bare feet skidded and my body fell stomach-first onto the ground.

The man looked like he was going to cry. And not manly tears, either. He ran to the pokémon and bent over them.

"Come on, buddy, stay with me," he said, a little hysterical. "Come on, Samuel! Fight it!"

"I-it hurts," the wurmple cried. The seedot's heart had already stopped, I could tell.

"You can make it, come on," the man begged, taking his wurmple in his arms.

"I'm not gonna make it," said the wurmple.

I started crying, "What have I done...what have I done...what have I done..."

My hymn, my mantra. The words soothed me. I wanted to curl up into a ball and die and make that guy and the pokémon happy.

Shakily, I stood back up, supporting myself with the tree trunk and smearing it with blood.

The man looked at me.

"Go," he growled. "Go, before I kill you like you did them!"

"I...I'm sorry..." I cried. "I'm sorry!"

"I don't care! Go!" the man roared. So I turned and I ran.

Feet pounding the ground, branches whipping my skin, tears streaming down my face. This was my element. Running as fast as I could away from death.

When I was as far away as I could get, I collapsed and cried into the ground. "I'm so sorry...I'm so sorry...I'm so sorry..."

~Petalburg City Pokémon Center~

Kris's arm was around my shoulders(which she had to kneel on the chair next to me to do and even then it only reached just past my neck), but I barely felt it. I was numb. Numb with grief. Numb with hate. Numb with guilt as I sat in the cheap waiting room chairs as Samuel, my youngest teammate, was in critical condition with a broken spine, a punctured lung, and a concussion. He was just a kid. Why did this have to happen?

No, I corrected myself. He's not a kid. He's young, but he's not a kid. He fights other young people to the death for glory. He sees blood and murders and death on a daily basis. There's no youth in that.

And Jojo, dead from the shoulder wound. The button on his pokéball was grayed out, a signal that the pokémon inside would never wake up. He was a little older than Samuel, still eight years old. Both of them, it was their first battle. Their very first!

Then that damned poochyena had come and killed them. She cried when she found out she killed them. As if that made it all okay, she was so sorry, she didn't mean it. No matter how many times she said it, she was still a killer.

My eyes were red and puffy. I'd been crying, and I didn't care who knew it.

Samuel wasn't doing well at all. The strain on his body had been so great, the doctors said his body couldn't take the stress because he was so young. That he didn't have much of a chance to live. If he did, he'd be confined to a wheelchair the rest of his life.

I watched him from the window, the EKG bleeping slower and slower. His eyes were closed. It looked like he was sleeping. Maybe he was. Maybe he would go peacefully. He's such a quiet and shy kid, he didn't seem like the type to go out kicking and screaming, unlike_some_one I know. (See: Kris, Sully.)

Stanley's practically catatonic. Those two were like not only brothers to each other, but to him and Sully. Speaking of which, Sully was ranting so much and causing such a raucous, I'd returned him.

The machine flatlined. The paddles came out.

Once. Nothing.

Twice. Nothing.

Three times. Nothing.

All thought in my body stopped. To lose not one, but two team members to the same pokémon...it was too cruel.

Life was cruel.

Death was cruel.

Love was crueler than both combined.

I barely registered Kris wrapping her still-skinny from malnourishment arms around me and crying into my shoulder.

I barely registered the doctors telling me Samuel hadn't made it.

I barely registered his dead body automatically beaming itself to the grayed-out pokéball. A lousy coffin, really, but it made cleanup easier.

I didn't feel anything until that night when we spent the night in the pokémon center. Kris kissed me goodnight and went to her room, and when she left, I cried until my throat was raw.

* * *

**-THE DATE: 6/3**

**-TIME LEFT FOR LYRA: 90 DAYS**

**-TEAM: 2**

**-DEATHS: 2**

**-CASH: $34**


	8. Chapter 7

~That Morning, Petalburg City~

Something was on top of me. It was straddling my stomach, both feet hanging off the sides of the Pokémon Center bed. Its hands were on my shoulders, elbows bent like it was in the down position of a push-up. Its hot little face was right next to mine.

As I opened my eyes, I could gradually make out details. Dark hair, short nose, dark green eyes, reddish burn on the left cheek and side of neck.

"Morning, sleeping beauty," Kris said jokingly. By this time, my sluggish brain had connected the thing on top of me to her name.

"Morning," I mumbled.

Kris swung her tiny self off of me and landed on the hardwood floor without a sound. "We let you sleep in," she said. "But I figured I should wake you up for lunch."

I'd slept through half the day. Huh, a new record.

I propped myself up on my elbows and blinked the sleep out of my eyes. "What's for lunch?" I mumbled, tossing the covers off.

Kris thought a minute. "I'm...not sure. Something with the consistency of Elmer's glue. And some kind of powder."

My stomach growled. "Works for me."

~Later, the PC cafeteria~

"It tastes like purple..." said Stanley, a very strange look on his face.

"It's awesome!" Sully crowed, shoveling powder into his mouth. "Like me!"

I now know the reason Pokémon get free healthcare.

It didn't taste that bad. It didn't really have a taste, though I think I detected a hint of feet. But I was hungry. Man cannot live on protein bars alone.

~Even later, Route 102~

"Okay," I said briskly. "Who's ready to train?"

"I DO NOT NEED TRAINING! I AM SULLIVAN!"

"Meaning, yeah, we're game," said Stanley.

~Training montage, Sully and Stanley at level 8~

"And now," I pronounced, stretching. "It's time to move on. More battles are on 104, meaning more cash."

"And a new teammate," Kris added. "Maybe you'll finally catch a girl."

I shrugged. "It'll probably be a zigzagoon or something."

"I heard you could find ralts on 104," Stanley said helpfully.

"Yeah, but they're about as rare as an absol in Kanto," Kris said pointedly.

~Route 104~

Mother of Kyogre. I swear, Stanley's a good-luck charm.

No sooner had I stepped into the patch of tall grass when this little girl Sully's age came out and stared at me. Her hair was green with red ralts horns, bangs flopping over her eyes, which I couldn't see at all through the thick curtain of hair. She was wearing a sleeveless white dress that brushed the tips of her white shoes, and these white arm-warmer-fingerless-glove things. It was a little creepy.

She calmly turned around, tilted her head to the side slightly, and said in this weirdly calm voice, "How many?"

Creepy child. VERY creepy child. Yet at the same time, there was a ralts right in front of me and I had two pokéballs left.

If she felt anything when I chucked the pokéball at her, she didn't show it. Though she did break right out after the thing dinged.

She placed her hands behind her back and looked at me through her bangs. "Aurae."

Creepy. Very, very creepy. But it was a fucking _ralts. _Those things can be vicious killing machines if you train them right. But then again, sometimes they're a _little_ cuckoo.

* * *

**-THE DATE: 6/4**

**-TIME LEFT FOR LYRA: 90 DAYS**

**-TEAM: 3**

**-DEATHS: 2**

**-CASH: $12**


	9. Chapter 8

~Route 104~

I concur, Aurae is a total BAMF. Though she is a little odd. And I think she's a pyro, just saying. I don't like fire...

What bugs me is how she sees through the curtain of hair over her face.

Anyway, she is a complete and total badass, no question about it. She took on a bug catcher's team of six identical wurmple(that were nothing like Samuel and a disgrace to wurmple everywhere) and a rich boy's zigzagoon without any help from me and Sully. And now she's the same level as us. Is it sad I'd rather her rub our faces in it than spout weird bits of wisdom at random times during the day?

Conversations would go something like this:

Me: So, welcome to the team!

Aurae: I can see your aura. What was he like?

Me: Ah...I'm Stanley. Nice to meet you!

Aurae: Do you like fire?

Me: ...No.

Aurae: Pity. You know, someone once told me that robots count mareep to go to sleep.

Me: ...Okay...

So you can see she's not the easiest person to talk to. I've never been good at talking-particularly to anything with estrogen in its body systems-and Aurae isn't helping.

~Rustboro City~

How Kris manages to stay up all night and be all cheerful in the morning is beyond me. How I wind up carrying her piggyback-style through Rustboro City isn't. It's because I'm too damned nice, that's why. At least she's not heavy. If I had to guess, I'd say she weighs about eighty-five pounds. Which is probably not accurate at all, but that's what it feels like.

Anyway, I got a lot of passing strange looks as I walked into Rustboro City. There was really nothing I could do about that-Kris sleeps like the dead- but go to the pokémon center and rent her a room for while I challenged the gym. I left a note on the door just in case she woke up before my match was over. Then I went to the Rustboro Gym to get my winning money...and a badge.

Gym leaders are practically gold mines in terms of payout. Relatively high-leveled pokémon, great strategy, and most of the time they have up to five 'mons. Roxanne, gym leader of Oreburgh, is no different. She used two rock-type pokémon with levels in the early teens, and there were two trainers in her gym you had to battle first. An extra challenge, but necessary to training, considering I've kicked the ass of everyone from 104 back.

But first...(Insert level-grinding montage here.)

_~?~_

_Arachne Crane was bored. Bored, bored, bored. If she heard one more word of Maxie's strategy crap, she was going to kill something. What was the point of having a predictable strategy? If your strikes are too coordinated, someone could predict the order of buildings you were attacking and stop you. What would be the point then? There's no terror without unpredictability. That was what had made the Dragonspiral Tower attacks so successful._

_Archie slammed her hands into the glass-topped conference table in the Team Alpha building in Slateport City._

_"I'm tired of waiting. What's gotten into you with all this "plan" garbage, Maxie?" she demanded._

_Maxie had been staring out over the sprawling skyline of Slateport through the floor-to-celing glass windows. He didn't flinch as Archie dug her fingernails into his shoulder._

_"Archie, if you want to assemble your half of Team Alpha to perform an attack, be my guest. I'm sticking with Operation Orbs," Maxie said calmly._

_Archie should've felt better. Instead, she just got angry. She picked up a glass sculpture from the mahogany cubby-style shelves and threw it into the wall as hard as she could. It shattered into a hundred razor-sharp pieces of blue shards._

_"You're never around anymore, Maxie," she said, steeling her nerves. Her voice, against her will, shook slightly. "All you want to do lately is pour through those old books about pokémon that probably don't even exist anymore. What happened to you?"_

_Maxie sighed. "Sometimes," he began. "There are things that are best planned."_

_"What is wrong with you? You haven't been yourself lately," Archie murmured, barely loud enough for him to hear._

_"I'm perfectly fine, Archie. Stop worrying," Maxie reassured her, taking her hand in his._

_Archie slipped her hand out. "Telling me not to worry won't stop me from worrying. You should know me better than that."_

_Maxie chuckled. "I probably should. Go grab some lunch, Archie. I'll be down later."_

_Archie wasn't reassured by his humor, but she nodded, gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, and left._

_She didn't hear the click of a bottle of painkillers being opened and Maxie popping a couple into his mouth._

* * *

**-THE DATE: 6/5**

**-TIME LEFT FOR LYRA: 89 DAYS**

**-TEAM: 3**

**-DEATHS: 2**

**-CASH: $2**


	10. Chapter 9

~Rustboro Gym~

I was so ready. So completely ready. I was going to defeat that gym leader, and defeat 'er good!

Ethan had insisted on getting me up to near-evolution level before the battle, just as a backup in case Sully did something stupid. Sully would be the main force, and Aurae would hang back and pay attention. Hopefully.

The two gym trainers, two kids younger than I was(If you're wondering, I just had my thirteenth birthday) with a couple geodude that were hammier than Sully(and that's saying something), were both jokes. Why was Roxanne training with them and not someone that stood a chance? Ah well, no one stands a chance against the Jasper Brotherhood.

So Ethan strode up to the challenger's end of the battlefield and faced the leader. Some random people who liked battle-watching, apparently, had come and sat on the rows of bleachers. Roxanne herself, a chick about Kris's age, stood on the other end of the field with a book in her hand.

When she heard Ethan step up, she put the book aside and said, "Well Ethan, it's about time. Puh-LEASE tell me you have tough pokÃ©mon, it's been ages since I've had a good battle!"

"No probs, Roxy," said Ethan, taking Sully's pokeball and tossing it out onto the field. Somehow, I wasn't surprised he knew her.

"AWW YEAH!" Sully shouted, stretching. "PER-PARE TO BE PANBAKED!"

"That's "pancaked," Sully," Ethan said, sweatdropping.

"WHATEVER!"

And so the battle begun.

~The Pokemon center~

I was awakened by the sound of crowds outside. Wait a second, outside? Why was I lying in a bed? And where the hell was Ethan?

My mind put the pieces together. He must have gone to challenge the gym and left me here. Well, that was nice of him.

Now why were there crowds outside? One way to find out.

I splashed some water on my face, tugged on my jacket, and walked out of the PC and into the streets of Rustboro City.

Outside, there was a crowd of people gathered around a small stage with fliers pasted all over near surfaces. I snatched one floating by in the wind and read it.

_Team Plasma_

_Release All Pokemon!_

_Join Now!_

"Bullshit, I'm not releasing any 'mons," I muttered.

"Pokemon have suffered too long under the tyranny of humans!" a voice proclaimed. A young man with green hair wearing a black-and-gray baseball cap stood on the small stage with a megaphone, under a hand-painted banner that said _Team Plasma: In Partnership With PETP and SPCP. _"Join Team Plasma, and together we will free pokemon from the oppression of mankind!"

I didn't buy it, and I could tell the crowd didn't, either. Some walked away, mumbling things like, "What's _he _smoking?" "I'd never release my pokemon." "I couldn't do that! My pokemon are my friends!"

I stood there with my arms folded and a skeptical expression on my face as the crowd dissipated and the young man pleaded with people to come back and listen, shoving fliers in their face.

"Nice job," I said sarcastically, with a sarcastic clap along with it.

"You think so?" said the young man hopefully, the sarcasm going right over his head.

"No!" I shot at him. "That stuff about releasing pokemon? That's total tauros crap!"

The young man folded his arms. "You're one of them, aren't you. A trainer."

I shook my head. "I was. Kind of. I don't think I am anymore."

"So you stopped being a trainer because you realized you were hurting pokemon?" said the young man hopefully.

"Long story. The point is, quit saying all this garbage about releasing your pokemon!" I snapped.

"It is my ideals," said the young man, as if that made anything better. "I cannot help it if you do not agree."

"So you're shoving these "ideals" down everyone's throat?" I asked angrily. "Hypocritical much?"

"My duty is to enlighten," said the young man enigmatically. "As a complex equation does, I am simply educating people on what happens."

"Yeah?" I said challengingly. "Just who the hell are you to say that?"

He opened his mouth, but a couple of ginger-headed people in knight getups towed him away, falling over themselves to get him away from me. One shoved me aside. Ugh, rude.

I folded my arms as he was dragged away. He was infuriating. Just who was he to shove ideals down people's throats?

~Rustboro Gym~

Sully did something stupid, as usual. He got thwacked in the head by a stray Rock Throw and got completely knocked out. Ethan freaked for a second, but Sully was still breathing. Arceus, he could be an idiot sometimes.

So I finished off the battle. Power surged through me, I could feel it as I Pounded and Absorbed the pokemon into oblivion. It flowed through my bloodstream, pure energy and power. My heart thrummed, my bones sang. I felt as if I could beat the shit out of anything.

I snagged a new move after the battle. Pursuit. Hoho, now no one can see me coming!

~Rustboro Gym~

"Congrats on a great battle, Ethan," said Roxanne proudly as she presented me with the badge.

"Awesome, thanks," I said, immensely satisfied. (The wad of $700 bucks in my pocket didn't feel too bad, either).

Something started glowing from behind me. I was startled for a second when I realized that it was Stanley. He was changing right before my eyes. When the glow faded, my heart swelled with pride. Evolution! In place of the skinny, short kid Stan had been was a tall, lanky, beanie-bearing teenager with green peach fuzz on his chin. He had a bigger green hoodie and red T-shirt, and his cargos were a darker green and the suspenders looped around his belt were looser and resembled tails.

"Sweet," Stanley said in bass.

_Is this what a parent feels like? _was my first thought. _Man, Sully and Kris'll be surprised, _was my second.

~The Pokemon Center, later~

They were. Sully's response was, "DUDE, YOU EVOLVED WHEN?" Kris's was, "Congratulations, Stan!"

I'd expected as much.

Well, I'm less screwed than I was before. Next stop, Dewford Island, if I'm correct. But until we get there, training is imminent. We'll get stronger as a team, and I'll earn my two grand to keep Lyra. Kris is back, I've got a gym badge, and all in all, life is good.

I sure hope it lasts.

**-THE DATE: 6/5**

**-TIME LEFT FOR LYRA: 88 DAYS**

**-TEAM: 3**

**-DEATHS: 2**

**-CASH: $700**


	11. Chapter 10

~Route 104~

**New teammate get!**

**Whismur, "Heart"**

**Age 9 1/2**

**Hasty Nature**

**Female**

**-Pound**

**-Uproar**

-404 ERROR: unable to tolerate saying boring things like the Jasper Brotherhood is now in the process of finding a lost wingull named Peeko and had previously got THE GOODS back and received a GPS from some rich dude-

"HELLOOO!" I yelled into Rustproof Tunnel. "ANY WINGULLS IN HERE?"

"Wonderful idea, Sully," said Stan. Is it required that now that he's a teenager he's sarcastic? Meh.

There wasn't anything there, anyway. A couple zubats flew away from me, but other than that there was nothing.

"That wingull's prob'ly somewhere in here," I said confidently. "Just further in."

"Probably," Stanley shrugged.

"You two be careful," Ethan called from the entrance. Since Ethan was a smart trainer-or should I say, Kris was a smart girlfriend-he'd said that only me and Stanley go in because there was less of a chance we'd get attacked by something if the 'mons in there saw that Stan was twice their level and twice their size. Not that I couldn't kick the ass of anything that came out at us, but Ethan said it's better safe than sorry. Ah well. I'll kick their asses anyway.

Stanley and I walked for awhile, but it got boring real quick.

"I wish we'd hurry up and find that wingull," I complained, walking backwards. "What bird 'mon would even come in here, anyway? Birds hate closed spaces, or at least I do."

Stan shrugged, his hands in his pockets.

I kept walking backwards. Then, offhandedly, I noticed that my foot wasn't landing on rock. This idea quickly came to the front of my brain as I realized that hey, I was falling. Now, being a bird, this wouldn't really be a problem. But there was a problem, and that was the fact that I sucked at flying.

Meaning that before I knew it, I was falling backwards. I think some kind of yell escaped my mouth, but I really don't remember. I remember seeing Stan's shocked face as I fell.

"Stay there, I'll get Ethan!" he called, running off.

I hit the ground hard, knocking every bit of air out of my respertory system. I lay there for a minute, gasping some air back through my lungs, and then stood up to see that I'd fallen about...a really long way.

This was stupid. Why had a gap been there, anyway? Weren't those people doing some kind of construction? It didn't make any sense!

I kicked a rock and it clattered somewhere else with an echoey sound.

Then some other sound caught my attention. Footsteps. And they were getting closer.

I whirled around. There was a long tunnel in front of me, littered with rocks. Normally, I'm never careful, because if something happens to a champ like me, I'll be able to deal with it, no sweat! But this was a little nerve-wracking. But don't you dare say that to anyone else, ya hear?

But that's what being strong was about, right? Not being afraid? So no matter how uneasy it made me feel, I our one foot in front of the other and walked through the eerie, echoey tunnel.

The footsteps got louder. They were shuffle-y sounds along with them, like whoever was walking was kind of dragging something along the wall or the ground. They stopped for a second, then they got faster in an uneven pace.

In the dim light, I saw something running towards me. I couldn't make out what it was before it slammed into me and wrapped its arms around my neck.

"Ohmyarceusthankmewyou'rehereit'ssodarkandscaryandhelpme!" it cried.

_Found Peeko_, was my first thought. _Whoa, Peeko's a chick? _was my second.

Then I registered that hey, there was a girl hugging me. For once, I had no idea what I should do. Charging headfirst wasn't going to help here. So I kind of reached up and awkwardly patted her on the back while she blubbered into my shoulder. She was covered in cave dust and her shoulder was getting blood on me, but none of that seemed to matter to her. Or me, for that matter. I can't really explain it. Weird.

After she calmed down a little, we started walking back to the other end of the tunnel, where I'd accidentally fallen in. She was clinging to my arm the entire time. I was a little surprised, I'll admit. Most people just go "Okay..." in a kind of awkward manner when they meet me. Like they don't really think I'll get to be a champion. Like, really. I'm not stupid! Well, screw them, I'm going to the Champion's Hall of Fame whether they like it or not!

A'course, that won't happen if stupid Stanley doesn't get back here with backup. If he was just leaving us down here, I would strangle him. I would have climbed the stupid cliff myself if I didn't have to get Peeko back up.

So we waited. And waited. And waited.

Damn you, Stanley.

~Route 116~

"Should it be taking them this long?" I wondered as me, Kris, Heart, Aurae, and a really worried Mr. Briney waited outside Rusturf Tunnel.

"I'm just worried about Peeko," said Mr. Briney. "She hates caves!"

Then Stanley ran out of the tunnel, breathless and covered in dust.

I was on my feet in a second. "What happened? Where's Sully?"

Words came tumbling out of his mouth. "There was a hole or something"(insert exhausted panting)"Sully fell in. Happened fast."

Adrenaline's a funny thing. For me, it's like really short-term drunkenness where you start in one place and seemingly teleport to another, and you don't get a hangover, which is a definite plus.

~Rusturf Tunnel~

I hate caves. I really hate caves.

DAMN YOU, STANLEY!

"Yo! Sully, you down there?"

Arceus, finally.

"YEAH!" I shouted. "AN' I FOUND PEEKO!"

"Great! We'll drop a rope in a second, so you and Peeko hold on to it and we'll pull you up, okay?" Ethan called. Said rope dropped down a second later.

I turned to Peeko. "You think you can hold on?"

She nodded. Did she notice the _giant gash that was getting blood down her arm_ at all? Band-aids would not cover that thing. I'll admit she had grit, but still.

"I-is Mr. Briney up there?" Peeko asked hoarsely, her throat probably full of dust.

"He's outside," said Kris, standing beside Ethan. Peeko smiled.

* * *

**-THE DATE: 6/5**

**-TIME LEFT FOR LYRA: 87 DAYS**

**-TEAM: 4**

**-DEATHS: 2**

**-CASH: $700**


	12. Chapter 11

~Route 105, on Mr. Briney's boat, which Ethan is driving(painfully slowly so that I am ready to start beating him with a conveniently placed blunt object if he doesn't speed the hell up)~

"Sully and Pee-ko sittin' in a tree, K-I-S-I-N-G," Heart sang.

"Oh, shut up," Sully hissed. "She's not my girlfriend! We talked, like, once!"

"Denial's not just a river in Utah," said Heart persistently.

"Where the hell is Utah?" Sully exclaimed, giving Heart a what-are-you-talking-about-and-please-shut-up-before-I-hurt-you-very-badly look, a look I see pretty much every time I look in a mirror.

"Kris, do you have any duct tape?" Aurae asked me in that weird, distracted way of hers.

"No," I said, slightly confused. "Why do you need duct tape?"

"No reason," Aurae shrugged. Then she walked away. I still wasn't used to that.

"First comes lo-ove, then comes marriage, then comes baby in a baby carriage!" Heart hummed just loud enough for Sully to hear.

"I said shut up!" Sully growled.

Stanley was snoring in a deck chair with his red, reflective goggles pulled over his eyes like sunglasses. A mustache was drawn under his nose and the words CAPTAIN GECKOFACE written in screaming capital letters on his forehead, courtesy of Heart's boredom. He looked like a fifteen-year-old pirate. I'll have to ask Ethan to remind me to never let Heart around matches, sharp objects, or shaving cream.

"Make me!" Heart taunted.

"I will turn this boat around," Ethan threatened from the "captain's bridge," which was a schmancy way of saying the area with the steering wheel raised above the rest of the boat, accessed by a ladder.

Cue me banging my head on the white-painted railing hopelessly.

~Dewford Island~

Through a miracle of self-control and willpower, I managed to not strangle anyone, human or otherwise, as we landed on Dewford Island.

Heart had been returned to her pokéball and the latch taped shut after Stanley woke up and chased her around the boat a couple of times, her cackling maniacally the whole time. Sully had then returned to staring at the ocean-uncharacteristic for him-, and Stanley had attempted to scrub the marker off of his face. While faded, the letters of CAPTAIN GECKOFACE are still prominent.

Dewford Island was, as it said in the brochure, as close to paradise as you could get and still be in Hoenn, and a popular spot for young, single adults to meet other young, single adults in the species, gender, and sexual orientation of their choosing, as well as a popular spot for honeymoons.

In other words, a tropical island full of sex-crazed party people.

"This is boring! When can we battle?" Sully complained loudly, buxom girls in bikinis walking by. Ugh, seriously, how insensitive and shallow can you get? (The girls, not Sully.)

"We need to train first," said Ethan. "Brawly's pokémon are tough. We're probably not gonna use you this battle, Stan, unless for backup. Girls, how do you feel about evolving?"

"I can't wait!" Heart said enthusiastically.

"I hear gardevoir can learn Will-O-Wisp," said Aurae.

"That's by breeding, so unless your dad was a banette, you can't learn it," Ethan explained.

"Oh. Well, I still have matches, right?" Aurae asked.

She never ceases to creep me out.

~Dewford Island~

So, while Ethan and the 'mons went out to train in Granite Cave, I stayed behind in the city. In the streets of Dewford there seems to be no boundary between the sidewalk and the street. Pretty much all the houses are a mismatch of wood, concrete, and stucco. Surfers walk around flexing their muscles and generally thinking they're hot stuff, and there are couples making out on every corner. The city never sleeps, it seems. Searchlights and neon blare at all hours, and street vendors crowd the streets with cars and motorcycles ramming their way through. No one seems to wear much besides swimwear, but I can see why. It must be a hundred degrees. Casinos and clubs and arcades and surf shops and smoothie huts and movie theaters are everywhere. And everyone is Pokéstar-Studios-Perfect. (**A/N: Think of it like a weird combination of Las Vegas(Nevada), Hollywood(California), Dhaka(Bangladesh), and Miami(Florida), if that helps or makes any sense.**)

Taking the initiative, I got us a room in the PC(the only normal building around). What bothers me, however, is the fact that I snagged the last room in the entire Arceus-damned center and Ethan's the only one with pokémon. Everyone else is just using it as a hotel. And another thing, there is one bed. One. I know this really shouldn't bug me considering he's my boyfriend and all, it's just awkward, kind of, because I've pretty much been nineteen for five years.

Meh, I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

My eyes went to the pay phone in the corner of the room. I still had some phone calls to make and a ton of time to kill. Hey, maybe I'll find out some stuff about Kris Golden.

~Just outside Granite Cave, about two hours later, me holding a pan stained with some kind of dark stuff in my hand~

Ethan, covered in cave dust, came out of Granite Cave as I waited.

"So," I demanded, wasting no time. "My mom's dead, my dad's an alcoholic, and my brother's in prison. Anything else you'd like to tell me?"

* * *

**-THE DATE: 6/6**

**-TIME LEFT FOR LYRA: 86 DAYS**

**-TEAM: 4**

**-DEATHS: 2**

**-CASH: $680**


	13. Chapter 12

~Dewford Island~

My mind was telling me to run. My heart was kicking my mind and telling me to tell Kris the truth because if I didn't, death would be all to quick and merciful. The rest of me was trying not to break down and cry at her feet.

"Your pokémon are on Ted's ranch," I said weakly. "I thought of that."

"That's something," said Kris grudgingly. "But you think that I wouldn't want to know what happened in the five years of life that I missed?"

I wanted to tell her. I wanted to become a fucking newspaper of anything and everything she wanted to know, because I'd been paying attention. I wanted to spill out my guts to her-not literally, ouch-and break down in long-overdue tears of relief that she was finally back with me, where she belonged, right then and there.

"I'll tell you anything you need to know, but here isn't exactly the place," I said, glancing back at a newly-evolved Sully, Aurae, and Heart. Sully was taller but still on the short side, with hair that stuck out like that ninja kid from a cartoon Brendan watches, and his raincoat was longer so that it brushed the tops of his dark yellow boots like a cowboy duster. Instead of shorts there were jeans with yellow patches on the knees tucked into his boots, and instead of fingerless gloves there were simple yellow wristbands. Aurae looked different. I could see her eyes now, and they were a dark brown color. I'd been expecting them to be, oh, I don't know, the color of fire. She wore shorts with rolled-up ends, with some kind of knee-length half-skirt thing like a backwards apron or something over it. She wore a white tank top and another white translucent shirt with long, flowy sleeves, with a bunch of beaded necklaces and seashell pendants dangling from her neck. Heart looked like an eighth-grade girl that you'd see hanging out in a music store, with purple headphones dangling around her neck, wearing a light purple tank top with a huge yellow circle on the chest, a darker purple short skirt-like _really_ short, the kind you see in anime, the kind that doesn't show underwear no matter how much the girl moves, that kind-with thigh-high light purple socks and untied purple high-topped sneakers.

Stanley was hanging back with his back against a boulder. Heart was teasing Sully, Sully was trying to get her to shut up, and Aurae was staring into space.

_What a weird assortment of pokémon_, I thought.

Kris sighed. "Fine. I got a room in the PC, by the way. There seems to be only one bed, by the way."

Wait, what?

~The Dewford Island Pokémon Center~

Kris paced up and down on the industrial carpeting so quickly I was surprised the carpet didn't start smoking. I, feeling like I was in seventh grade again and had been caught in the girl's bathroom-which, I might add, wasn't my fault. Steven dared me, and how was I supposed to know Miranda was in there?-sat on the bed. The single bed. Meaning I am probably sleeping on the floor tonight, knowing Kris.

"Okay, first question. How did my brother get arrested?" Kris asked, stopping her pacing.

"Multiple counts of vandalism, attempted arson, and jaywalking," I answered without missing a beat.

Kris shrugged like she'd been expecting as much. "Next question. How did mom die?"

"Suicide shortly after Jake went to prison," I said. "She wasn't exactly sane to begin with, though."

"Very true. Third question, how many of our friends are gym leaders and champions?"

I counted in my head. "Five. Steven, Jasmine, Roxy, Brawly, and Wallace."

"Why are you even on this journey? I mean, you got me back."

I paused. "It's a long story."

"I got time," Kris shrugged.

So I told her the story. Starting from the night the building burned down, to everything about Lyra, to going on this journey to get the two grand.

Kris listened patiently as I spoke. When I finished, she said simply, "Wow."

"Yeah," I said in affirmation. "It's been insane lately."

"And you were worrying about me, too? Yowza," Kris added.

"It wasn't so much worrying for you as it was for whoever took you," I joked. When she whacked me, I said, "Gah, okay! I take it back, jeez."

"Whatever," Kris scoffed affectionately.

Something pinged in my head. Something I'd planned to do a while ago. I grabbed my backpack and fumbled around for it, but idiot me forgot to put it in there. Gyah. So I ran out of the room and shouted "Gimme a second!"

~The Dewford Island Pokémon Center inside the room I so courteously booked~

What was he doing? Doesn't he know it's rude to run out on someone like that?

He ran back, whacking his head on the door frame. Before I could ask if he was okay, he shoved a small, plastic container at me and flopped down on the bed, making the mattress and frame lurch and the people below us bang on the ceiling.

"What the-Ethan?" I sputtered.

"Open it," he said, out of breath.

I squeezed the plastic thing open, not sure what to expect, and forgot how to breathe.

"It's...it's years overdue, I...I know. Still like it?" Ethan panted, a grin on his face.

I really should have been able to string together a sentence. After fumbling around in my numb brain, I said, "Did you just...ask me to marry you with a ring in an H-E-Buddy sticker case?"

"Pretty much," said Ethan.

"You're an idiot," I deadpanned.

Ethan's face fell. "Is that a no?"

"No, it's a "you're an idiot,"" I said plainly. "You really are an idiot, Ethan, but I suppose someone has to keep you in line."

"So it's a yes?"

"See? Idiot."

"Wait, what? Kris!"

"Shut up and kiss me already."

"So it's a yes?"

"Idiot."

"Yeah, it's a yes."

~Outside the room~

I glanced back at the door to Ethan and Kris's room.

"Should they be taking this long?" I wondered aloud, drawing a card from the stack, cursing silently, and drawing another.

Sully shrugged. "Myeh, let 'em go for it. Dammit, Heart!"

Heart grinned. "You're goin' down, sucker. I'll bet somethin' really hot's going down in there."

Aurae sniffed the air. "I don't smell smoke."

"Not like fire-hot, like sexy-hot," Heart clarified.

"Ah. You're likely right," said Aurae, putting a blue card on the stack.

"Perverts," I mumbled.

"UNO! OH YEAH! TAKE THAT, NOOBS!" Sully shouted, pumping his fist in the air.

"Uch! Sully, you jerk!" Heart complained.

While they were bickering, I saw Aurae place her last two cards on the stack and say, "I win."

Teammates. You can't live with them, and you can't live without them.

* * *

**-THE DATE: 6/6**

**-TIME LEFT FOR LYRA: 86 DAYS**

**-TEAM: 4**

**-DEATHS: 2**

**-CASH: $680**


	14. Chapter 13

~Outside Dewford Gym~

I took a deep breath. Okay, I could do this. I could do this! I'd trained my ass off, and there is no way I'll let Ethan down. Not in my first battle and not in my last.

Ethan shoved open the doors to the gym. Inside, it was pitch-dark.

The adrenaline in my system started rushing.

That was when Ethan said, "Heart? Music, please. Something aggressive."

A grin snaked it's way across my face. "With pleasure, chief."

**~Now Playing: HEADLONG by QUEEN~**

_Bang. _The doors to the leader's room flew open. I hopped back and fourth on the balls of my feet as Ethan strode up to the battlefield. He looked so confident, so calm. Well, it was his second gym battle. I'd have been more nervous if it was his first.

"Ethan! Bro, how're ya doing?" called the leader, a tall surfer dude with bright blue hair. "Asked Krissy to marry you yet?"

"You heard she was back?" Ethan asked.

"She called," the leader admitted. "Ready to battle?"

"Ladies, you ready?" Ethan called to me and Aurae.

"I'm ready!" I said, determined.

_I refuse to lose, _I swore to myself as I hopped onto the battlefield opposite a Machop.

I prepared my best Uproar. Making a huge fuss was one of my best tactics. Usually the opponent got annoyed and just let me win.

Something hit me in the stomach. My vision danced with red spots and my head filled with static. I felt my feet leave the ground. My head landed on a corner. White-hot pain burned through my body. I felt moisture in my mouth and on my face. It was intense.

Shakily, I stood, blinking the spots away. I felt moisture on my left ear. The ground felt like a bounce house, undulating beneath my sneakers.

My vision was fuzzy, but I saw another Karate Chop headed straight for my neck. I stumbled to the side and fell onto the hard ground. Everything hurt, but I wasn't dead. It hurt too much for Heaven, and not enough for Hell.

I rolled onto my back. The bright lights from the gym ceiling burned my eyes. I tried to move again, but everything hurt.

"Make it stop," I groaned, but I don't think I said it aloud. Maybe I did. My head was ringing too much.

As my vision turned black, I saw a green shape rush over me and yell something.

I was losing the ability to think, but I stood up anyway. I swore to myself I wouldn't lose. I would finish this battle if it killed me.

Clumsily, I curled my fingers into a fist and hit that little Machop bastard hard as I freaking could. Maybe I got there, maybe I didn't. The next thing I recall is lying with my cheek to the ground, completely immobile and in complete agony. Over the sirens in my head I heard someone, maybe Ethan, yelling.

"Is she breathing? Is she okay?" he sounds frantic. I want to get up and kick some more ass, and tell him I'll be fine, but it hurts so much to move I can't lift my hand without blacking out.

~Dewford Gym~

"Ambulance is on the way," I said breathlessly, Heart limp in my arms. She's still breathing, but just barely.

"Alright," said Ethan, his mouth a line. "Let's finish the battle."

"What?" Sully gasped. "Chief, one of the brotherhood is down! That is not awesome in the least! Unlike me, of course."

"You don't run from a gym battle, no matter what happens," Ethan said grimly.

Swiftly, Aurae stepped up on stage. Brawly had two pokémon, a jerkface machop at half-health and a full-health makuhita.

"Bring it on, bastards," she said simply, placing her hands at her sides and her feet shoulder-width apart.

Brawly's machop, Hayden, I think his name was, prepared a karate chop and charged.

Aurae's Confusion attack hit him before he even touched her. She glared so fiercely I thought that it was just her look that brought him down. Damn, that girl is scary.

When Brawly's makuhita, Jesse, came out, Aurae took him out in two confusions. He was at about three HP when she got hit by a Knock Out attack. Still with most of her health, Aurae stared him down.

As he charged, I saw something orange around Aurae's clenched fists. It took awhile before I realized they were flames. Aurae was on fire.

She lifted her hands. Fire spiraled out, red and orange and white and violet, all around the gym. Maybe accidentally on her part, but the rafters above our heads started burning. The fire alarm system started blaring. Chunks of the building fell. Aurae stood among the flames, watching as Brawly's makuhita, badly burned, was recalled and Brawly ran out of the building, slamming the doors open. I ran out next, Heart in my arms, Ethan right behind.

Aurae stood, surrounded by fire, flames licking her feet.

She didn't come out again until just before the entire mass of mismatched wood and concrete and stucco collapsed, walking unflinchingly, her face shaded by her bangs.

**~Now Playing: WHISPER by EVANESCENCE~**

* * *

**-THE DATE: 6/7**

**-TIME LEFT FOR LYRA: 85 DAYS**

**-TEAM: 4**

**-DEATHS: 2(maybe)**

**-CASH: $640**


	15. Chapter 14

~Dewford Pokémon Center~

_Maybe I'm just not cut out for being a trainer's pokémon. Maybe I should just quit. I'm holding the rest of the team back._

"You think lies," said Aurae. Cripes, I'd forgotten about the mind-reading. "If we thought you held the team back, you'd have been boxed a long time ago."

"Yeah, well, maybe they're just sugarcoating to protect my "feelings" or whatever," I said bitterly.

"Heart, take it from someone that knows. Are you a telepath? I don't think so," said Aurae pointedly.

I folded my arms and said flatly, "So what."

"So don't be basing yourself if you don't know what everyone else really thinks," said Aurae.

I stared at the white hospital sheets. "You're really hard to argue with."

Aurae shrugged. "I try."

"But seriously, I got the team into a buncha situations while we were training. I had to be saved from some Aron at least six times, I got us lost in the lower layers of Granite cave, and I generally kept everyone else from speeding through training," I said to Aurae as she scrolled through the songs on my iPod.

"Heart..." said Aurae, poking my shoulder in a kind of weird affectionate way of hers. "Do you like to battle?"

"Absolutely," I responded without missing a beat.

"Then stay on the team. No one's forcing you to quit or stay, doofus," said Aurae. "All I'm trying to do is let you know that."

I half-smiled and gave Aurae a hug. "Thanks, pyro."

"Anytime," said Aurae.

~Dewford Island Pokémon Center~

"I still can't believe you didn't tell your own boyfriend something this huge!"

"I didn't even know about it until now! I'm not psychic!"

"How could you not at least have a hunch that it was this?"

"I'm _always _like this, you idiot!"

I sighed and folded my arms. "At least it wasn't my doing."

Kris mirrored my gesture. "I'd prefer it if it was."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Stanley asked. "It's like you're speaking in code."

"Tell you later," I promised him. "How's Heart doing?"

"Moody, but otherwise fine," said Stanley. "Nurse Joy says she'll be able to battle by next week."

"Gotta love insta-heal," said Kris.

"I mean, how are we gonna work this out?" I asked, mostly to myself. "Even if gym leaders are practically gold mines, there's no guarantee it'll cover the cost, and what if I get a wipeout? What then?"

Kris took a deep breath. "We'll work it out somehow."

"Somehow," I agreed halfheartedly.

"What are you talking about?" Stanley demanded. "You're being all cryptic!"

"It's complicated, Stanley. We'll tell you after Heart gets out," I said, thinking that would buy me some time.

"I hate hospitals," an all-too familiar voice said. "I mean, why paint the walls beige? I was pretty much bored to tears in there."

"I know!" That was Aurae. And where there was Aurae, Heart was bound to be.

"H-hey," I said weakly.

Sully, who had been doodling in a notebook, looked up and waved. "Hey ladies, Ethan and Kris have some stuff they want to tell us."

Stanley eyed us. I was turning redder by the second, and so was Kris, but it was accompanied by a low growl in her throat that made it sound like she was about to breathe fire.

"Ooh, what?" Heart said eagerly.

"Well...it's, ah..." I began, not sure how to say it.

Kris whacked me on the back of the head. "It's not that hard!"

"Yes it is," I said defensively. "This is huge news!"

"Say it," she demanded.

"What? You're the one who should-"

"Say it!" she demanded, twisting my finger.

"Ah! Alright, pushy!" I took a deep breath. "Kris is...well, it's kind of a long story..."

"Spit it out!"

"I'm working on it!"

Kris tapped her foot impatiently. "Anytime now."

"She...it's kinda like..." I fumbled.

"Oh for crying out loud, Ethan!" Kris shouted impatiently. "I'm pregnant!"

* * *

**-THE DATE: 6/8**

**-TIME LEFT FOR LYRA: 84 DAYS**

**-TEAM: 4**

**-DEATHS: 2**

**-CASH: $620**


	16. Chapter 15

~Dewford Island, while the gym battle was going on~

* * *

I knew I was in trouble when I woke up that morning without the all-too-familiar stabbing pain in my midsection.

At first I'd just figured, "Oh, whatever, maybe it's just late this month" as the three months before then I'd been sitting in some cell in the middle of nowhere with my hands chained behind my back, kicking guys in the groin if they so much as looked at me, and subsiding mostly off of crackers(I had never been happier to taste purple than when Ethan and I got to Oldale), so I went on with my daily life and then that annoying Nurse Joy told me I might be pregnant.

Then I got a pregnancy test-so I could prove the little pink bitch wrong-and then shattered the eardrums of everyone within a three-mile radius.

I hate my life. I hate whoever got me pregnant. I hate the fact I'm pregnant in the first place.

I had a panic attack at 3AM the night I found out. I promptly woke Ethan up and said frantically, "OH MY ARCEUS! WHAT IF THE BABY'S A REPUBLICAN?"

He said, "It's in the freezer," and went back to sleep because he apparently enjoys being unhelpful.

I hate Ethan sometimes, too. But it never lasts. The big lump'd just be so lost without me.

At least _he_ didn't get me pregnant. If he did, death would be all to quick and merciful.

So why don't I just get an abortion?

Because of some kinda medical history shit with my bloodline. We don't react well to anesthetic, so if we go through surgery our brain fries and we die or some kinda junk like that.

So now I can either have the bloodsucking little thing or pray for a miscarriage. But of course, neither will happen, because the universe just _loves _to screw me over, doesn't it?

The worst part is that a friend of mine from middle school, Jasmine, keeps bombarding me with parenting advice while her own little bundle of fucking _joy _wails in the background and her emo electrician husband messes with the lighthouse's power, oftentimes cutting it off completely and/or blowing out the entire southeast coast of Sinnoh.

Wait, I lied. That's not the worst part. The worst part is that _I_, of all people, am going to be a mom. Kris Golden, the girl that stopped growing in the eighth grade, the girl with a smaller cup size than a table, the girl that _died_, is going to be a mother. Ooh, and she's not even married! Scandalous! Oh well, now I guess she'll have to stop kickboxing and breaking her nails in people's ribcages. She's a mom! She has to go home and take care of the baby and wear color-block dresses and aprons and three-inch heels and make sandwiches for the men and watch soap operas all day! Never mind the fact that she would much rather be beating people to a pulp in pokémon battling, moms can't do that. It's against THE RULES. And of course, she has to get married before she's twenty-five or else she'll be just another unwed mom in society. Shame, shame, shame.

HA HA HA! HA HA NO. Just no.

Say I have the baby with no complications that kill me and/or it. What's to say that the baby won't be a sociopath? Rudolf Punchler*'s reincarnation? A Republican? A small bear?

Knowing TA, it'll probably be either a terrorist or a pokémon. Either way, Team Alpha WILL DIE. The baby's father isn't a father, he's a glorified sperm donor. That will soon die.

"So, how's Wonderbaby?" Ethan asked me that night. The team had taken to calling it "Wonderbaby" for reasons I do not care to know.

"Painful," I'd answered truthfully. "I have to pee a lot, I'm hungry all the time, my feet hurt, I can't tell the thing's head from it's backside, and Nurse Joy is still rubbing it in my face that she was right and I was wrong."

Ethan knows better than to ask how Wonderbaby is now, for fear I'll bombard him with truths no man(that isn't a biologist or curious about all the wrong things) was ever meant to know such as the names and details of various parts of a woman's anatomy, along with how he can "ease my way through the life-changing process" since we've been telling everyone he's the father instead of some random dude that will die very, very soon. Besides, when we get married(but there's no telling when that'll be), our last names will change and by that point no one'll question it.

Fucking nature.

* * *

_~Slateport City, Team Alpha headquarters~_

_From what Archie understood, antidepressants weren't supposed to make you suicidal. _

_They were supposed to make it so that you could see a baby or small child without having a panic attack and winding up a sobbing, shivering mess._

_That sure as hell wasn't what they were doing for her. Ever since about three years ago, her depression had spiked more and more frequently, and now it was getting so that she could barely go outside without completely cracking. She was lucky she hadn't gone postal on TA. Sure, she was a terrorist. But a terrorist _for_ terrorists? That was...she didn't even know. A darker shade of gray than just normal terrorism, maybe._

_There was one thing she was sure of. One of these days, she'd snap. She'd go on some kind of a-a rampage and destroy everything in her path, all because she couldn't deal with her own problems and choices herself. She'd just shoved them off onto someone else and never once looked back._

In this world_, Archie thought, reciting an essay she wrote her sophomore year of college on morality in her head, _Many people believe that there is a line between good and evil. Black and white, right and wrong. This isn't true. The shades of black and white are blurred and mixed until there is a sliding scale of gray, from the angel with a cruel streak to the loving mother that plans terrorist attacks.

_Sometimes Archie just wanted to break down and cry. She was twenty-eight years old. She was married to the best man she could ask for. And yet sometimes she wanted to curl into a ball and cry her eyes out._

_She'd definitley done things she wasn't proud of. She wasn't the best student in school. She didn't make the best choices. She was an Inter-regionally feared _terrorist_, for crying out loud! You can't sink much lower than that._

_It was then and there Archie swore to redeem herself. Somehow, some way, she would fix what she'd done wrong._

* * *

**-THE DATE: 6/10**

**-TIME LEFT FOR LYRA: 82 DAYS**

**-TEAM: 4**

**-DEATHS: 2**

**-CASH: $1380**


	17. Chapter 16

~Slateport City~

* * *

"ETHAN!"

I snapped awake. Or not awake, more like alert. I'd nearly fallen into the bag of Fritos Kris had bought. I hate Fritos. Kris had apparently bought them because we needed food and they were on sale. Kris had said she'd "honed her bargain-hunting senses" but I'm pretty sure that's female code for "cheap."

"Alright, alright," I said, shaking my head. "What?"

Kris stuck my vibrating cell phone into my hand, yanking the cord out of the wall and knocking over the desk lamp into the plastic trash can.

Ignoring that, I answered the phone in my usual polite manner, "What are you selling?"

_"Ah, c'mon, that's no way to talk to your big brother!"_

"Right, sorry," I said. "Hey, Norm. What's up?"

_"So y'know Uncle Nate?"_

I rolled my eyes in disgust. "What about him? He finally get lung cancer?"

_"Not even close. You know how Nate missed the last few weeks of child support checks? Well yesterday, a bunch arrived in the mail addressed to you."_

"Yeah..."

I heard Norman sigh on the other end. _"Those checks? They're for a ton of money. Like five hundred bucks each."_

My jaw went slack, my cell phone fell out of my hand and clattered on the desk, and Kris gave me a funny look over _Quick, Easy, and Inexpensive Recipes: Healthy Eating For the Expectant Mother On a Budget_.

_"Ethan? Ethan, you there?"_

I picked up the phone and stammered, "F-five hundred dollars? Y-you sure you're not reading it wrong?"

_"Sure as hell, man. Five-oh-oh, with a little dollar sign at the front. How much money do you have now?"_

"About twelve hundred...how many checks are there?"

_"Three. Each for five hundred. So now what're you gonna do?"_

I sunk down into the very back-unfriendly desk chair, my mouth still hanging open. "I dunno..."

_"Want me to keep the checks? I'll give 'em to that Horton lady from Social Services."_

"Actually, can I...can I call you back on that? I need to talk things over with Kris..."

_"Sure, man. Call me when you need to. Bye."_

The _clunk_ on the end of the line told me Norman had hung up. I ended the phone call, staring at the desk.

Heart waved her hand in front of my face. "He's gone catatonic," she announced.

"I'm not catatonic," I said to my teammate irritably. "I'm just...stunned, I guess."

"You guys go...train or something," said Kris. "Ethan and I need to talk about some stuff."

"You heard the lady," said Stanley, leaving through the door. "Let's go."

After the team left, Kris put her book away.

"So what's going on with Lyra and five hundred dollars?" Kris asked.

"Uncle Nate's been sending child support checks since I got legal custody," I began. "The required thing, y'know? They come every other Monday and they're for usually about a hundred bucks. Normally I just cash them into my bank account back in Littleroot and then forget about them from all this other stuff I have, or had, like my job or taking care of Brendan and Lyra or continually trying to fix my bike. Which, by the way, is now on it's way to the nearest junkyard because I killed it trying to get Stanley from Professor Birch. Except three just came in the mail for five hundred bucks each so now I can pay back Social Services completely and get a buncha other stuff, too, like our own house finally or the wedding which needs to happen eventually and that's not counting the stuff I've had sitting in the bank vault which is Arceus-knows-what by now, but the problem is that I'd have no reason to continue training so I'd have to tell people I didn't really have a reason unless I lied but I can't do that because lying is wrong and I want to have a good reason because otherwise it's just pointless to keep being away from home and I miss Norman and Carrie and Lyra and Brendan and I know they miss me too so I don't want to stay away from them for too long and I want to bring you back with me because you're part of the whole reason I went on this journey in the first place and if I kept training and got shot during the League or something I'd have traveled all this way for no reason and then I'd leave you and I don't want to do that so now I'm really confused and stuck and AAAGH!"

I breathed heavily from my paragraph-long explanation, which had delved into a long run-on sentence by the end.

"You're an idiot," Kris deadpanned.

"I know," I said miserably. "I should've looked into my bank account in the first place..."

"Yeah, you really should've-OW!" said Kris, holding her stomach. "Fucking Wonder Twins. I think they're practicing kickboxing with my spleen."

"Well naturally," I said, smirking. "It's only right they'd be like their mother."

Kris kicked me in the shin.

"Ouch!" I yelped. "Arceus Christ, woman!"

"Serves you right," said Kris, folding her arms. "Idiot."

"Glad to see you still love me," I said, still smirking. I should really stop because she's going to kill me, but it'll be so worth it.

"Idiot."

I smiled. At least some things were still normal.

"So what's the plan?" Kris asked.

"I don't know," I muttered. "I love training. I love traveling, I really do. But I really miss Lyra and I need to pay back Social Services."

Kris thought a minute. "So just take the team with you back to Littleroot! You can leave them with Birch until we get our house and you'll still get to see them, and you can go back to see your family, and I can finally meet Carrie and Brendan and Lyra, and we'll be okay, Ethan. Everything will be okay."

I wrapped my arms around Kris, minding the bump. "I hope you're right, Kris," I murmured. "I really hope you're right."


	18. Chapter 17

_~Slateport City~_

* * *

_ Maxie didn't care what Archie said, he was going through with his plan and if she didn't like it, then so be it. Besides, it had already started. All he had to do was wait a few months. His plan would manifest itself around early December five years from now, and come full circle over the course of six years. By then there would be no stopping Team Alpha. Because even if the police are onto the organization, even if he and Archie and everyone connected to Team Alpha were killed...they would live on. Through time and through patience, Team Alpha would rise over and over again, no matter how many times it fell._

_Maxie had thought this through extremely well. He argued with Archie, knowing full well she'd break after enough stress. (Though not all of that stress was his fault, she had quite a lot going on lately.) He established a carefully complex pattern in the various attacks, simple enough to let the cops onto their trail, and complicated enough to seem random to the average grunt. And he'd taken that girl, Kristina, hostage, not just to make people wonder, but she played a vital role in his plan, which he'd taken to calling Plan Hydra._

_It felt nice, he had to admit, being in charge of something organized for once. Solely him at the controls, waiting patiently for the plan to take action, at a time only _he_ knew. No, better than nice. Godly._

_"Police! Hands in the air!"_

_Sitting in his chair, Maxie slowly turned around to face the policewoman before him. Her gun in bloodstained hands was pointed straight at Maxie, and the steely focus in her eyes told Maxie she would not miss and she would not take mercy. The smile of a madman was on Maxie's face. It was creepy, but he couldn't help it. This was simply funny to him. So very, very funny._

_"Go on," he said calmly, still grinning ear to ear. "Do what you came here to do."_

CRACK.

...

...

...

_Maxie's blood stained the revolving chair, his eyes wide open and staring at nothing, and his mouth still bearing that horrible, mad smile._

_One of Team Alpha's leaders may have been dead. The other one may have just vanished without a trace. But Maxie knew, his final thought as the bullet raced towards his heart, was that Team Alpha would forever be..._

_Eternal._


	19. Chapter 18

~Slateport City Bus Station~

* * *

_"You sure about this, little bro?"_ Norman asked over the phone.

"Yeah, I'm sure," I said definitley. "I've done enough. I think it's time for me to come home and start my own life."

_"Well, it'll be good to have you back. Lyra really misses you, y'know,"_ sighed Norman.

"The zillion messages on my phone told me," I chuckled.

"Come on, Ethan! The bus is leaving!" Kris called.

"Okay, okay," I called back. "Seeya soon, bro."

_"Seeya," _said Norman, hanging up.

I stuck my cell phone in my pocket and hurried over to the bus. Kris and I sat a few rows back from the driver.

"I'm glad you reached a decision," said Kris.

"Me too," I admitted. "I hate having to mull things over for a long time. It makes my head hurt."

"That's 'cause there's nothing up there," Kris joked, knocking on my head with her knuckles.

"Hey," I said, a little annoyed. "Don't do that."

Kris leaned her head on my shoulder. "Aww, Ethan's angry. Isn't that cute?"

I rolled my eyes at her. "You're one to talk."

Kris playfully shoved me. "Shaddup."

I half-smiled, and I thought that hey, the journey's not over yet. I may have stopped traveling, but the adventure was far from over. Kris and I would return to Littleroot, start our own life. I'd get custody of Lyra back, Kris and I could have that wedding ceremony, maybe I'd manage to find a real job, the Wonder Twins could come home to a stable home and good parents, and we could put this whole thing behind us.

Heh, I guess I'm not screwed after all.


	20. Epilogue

_~Slateport City~ _

* * *

_It was around ten at night when the woman visited the now-ruined skyscraper at the edge of Slateport City._

_She stepped over the caution tape put up to keep citizens out. Her boots crunched on the glass shards and gravel on the ground. She walked through the broken glass doors, careful of the sharp edges._

_The lobby was smeared with the dark brown of rusted blood. The stuff was spattered everywhere; walls, carpet, tipped-over furniture, on forgotten guns. Bullet holes were sprinkled across the huge room. Blood still lay in puddles; still fresh from what had happened yesterday. All the bodies were gone; everyone save for the sole officer leading the charge had died. But what had been left were scraps of clothing, shreds of skin and hair, broken and empty guns. Moonlight shone in beams from the broken windows, making rectangles on the floor._

_The woman ran her fingers along the blood-smattered marble countertop as she walked towards the staircase. Here was where over a thousand people had died. Here was where police had slaughtered terrorists. Here was where she had died._

_Or so everyone thought._

_She was, on the contrary, very much alive._

_Had this been part of the plan? The woman wondered this as she climbed the stairs, a stream of blood spilling down from the second-floor landing._

_When she arrived on the top floor, she saw the desk, the office chair, the smashed windows; all smeared with blood. Here was where the police force, the keepers of justice, had won the fight against terrorism._

_But they had done so by doing nearly exactly the same thing as their enemies; mass murder. The means and motives were different, but when it boiled down to it, they really weren't so different._

_But then again, in this world, who was? Everyone, even if they didn't realize it, would kill if it came down to it. Everyone._

_The woman touched the shards of a blue glass abstract sculpture, thinking back to when it was first broken. It was then that things had started to fall apart. She'd left the team later that month, walking out without so much as a word._

_But she knew. She knew what was going to happen. She knew what the team really was._

_She was likely going to be hunted down and murdered in her sleep. But this didn't faze her._

_So she'd gone to the police station and told them, as an anonymous source, what secrets that skyscraper near the edge of Slateport held. Then she'd faked her own death to start over as someone new._

_And then, with a single gunshot, it was all over._

_And the leader had gone out with the smile of a madman painted across his face._


End file.
